Author Archives: asuth2

‘Phonic Program’ Caveats

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dog and phonicsBefore I move onto the next component in Konza’s Big 6, I thought I would draw attention to Misty Adoniou’s paper, ‘Seven things to consider before you buy into phonics programs’.  This is a reminder that although explicitly teaching phonics is necessary for many students, it is only one component of a balanced reading approach.

Image from: Wayan Vota via Compfight cc

If you have had a chance to explore Version 8 of the Australian Curriculum English, you would have noticed a greater emphasis on phonics in the earlier years, and that from year 3 onwards, it states that phonological and phonemic awareness will continued to be applied when connecting spoken and written language. Below is Adoniou’s paper, which I found to be an interesting read.

 

Seven things to consider before you buy into phonics programs

Misty Adoniou, University of Canberra

Phonics, or teaching reading, writing and spelling through sounds, is often touted as the golden path to reading and writing.

National curricula in England and Australia have been rejigged to increase their focus on phonics, and entrepreneurs and publishers have rushed to fill the space with phonics programs and resources.

But before you buy their wares, consider the following.

1. English is not a phonetic language

This may be an inconvenient truth for those promoting phonics programs, but English is not a phonetic language and never has been.

English began about 1500 years ago as a trio of Germanic dialects brought over to the islands we now know as the British Isles. Latin speaking missionaries arrived soon after to convert the pagans to Christianity. They also began to write the local lingo down, using their Latin alphabet.

The Latin alphabet was a good phonetic match for spoken Latin, but it was not a good match for spoken Old English.

There were sounds in Old English that simply didn’t exist in spoken Latin, so there were no Latin letters for them. And there were sounds in Latin that didn’t exist in Old English, which left some Latin letters languishing.

Those letters were repurposed and some new letters were introduced. It was a messy match, and 1500 years of language evolution has only increased the distance between the sounds we make, and the letters we write.

As a result, English is alphabetic, but not phonetic. There is a simple sound letter match in only about 12% of words in English. How much of your literacy programming and budget do you want to allocate to that statistic?

2. Sounds are free

The sounds and letters of the English language are the ultimate open access knowledge. Buying them in a packaged program is just a con.

If you weren’t shown the sound-letter relationships in your teaching degree, shame on your degree, but in any case you can Google them or find them in the preface of a good dictionary.

3. Knowing your sounds is not the same as reading

I know all my sounds in French. I even sound reasonably convincing – in an Inspector Clouseau kind of way – when I “read” French. But I have no comprehension, so I’m not really reading.

Children who are failing in literacy in upper primary and high school are not failing because they don’t know their sounds. They are failing because they can’t comprehend.

Observe their attempts to read, write and spell and one thing is very clear – they know their sounds, and they over rely on them. Give them a phonics program and you are giving them more of what isn’t working for them.

4. Politicians are not educators

The push for phonics in England and Australia was spearheaded very conspicuously, almost personally, by the respective former Education Ministers Gove and Pyne. Politicians may have many skills… but they are not educators, and they are not educational researchers.

Educational reforms should not be shaped by personal predilections or political agendas.

5. Programs get it wrong

The narrow focus on sounds and letter patterns in phonics programs obscures more useful information for learning to read, write and spell. On occasion the material presented is just plain wrong.

A popular phonics workbook offers the following explanation for the word “technician”.

“Technician is a technical word. Although it is pronounced ‘shun’ at the end, it belongs to the word family ending in ‘cian’”

Teaching “cian” as a word family is linguistically inaccurate, and fails to teach how the word “technician” actually works.

“ian” is the suffix we attach to base words ending in “ic”, to turn them into the person who does the base word. So “technic” becomes “technician”, “magic” becomes “magician”, “electric” becomes “electrician” etc.

This knowledge develops spelling, builds vocabulary and increases reading comprehension. Being told that “cian” makes the “shun” sound does none of this.

6. Colouring-in is not literacy

Sticking balls of crepe paper on the letter “j” is not a good use of literacy learning time. Neither is colouring in all the pictures on the worksheet that start with “b”, particularly if you thought that picture of the beads was a necklace. And is that a jar or a bottle?

Busy work does not teach children to read and write.

7. There are no easy routes to literacy

Learning to read, write and spell is complex. The brain is not hardwired for literacy in the way it is hardwired for speech.

Each individual brain has to learn to read and write, and because our brains, our genes and our environments are all different, the pathways to literacy that our brains construct will be different.

If a single program could respond to this diversity then we would have solved the literacy problem a few hundred years ago when printed texts for the masses first took off.

Of course there are accounts of students whose progress was turned around by a phonics program – the comments section of this post will no doubt have some of those testimonials – but there are many more who languish in those programs.

Phonics programs can be helpful for students with very particular learning needs, but solutions to pointy end problems are not helpful for all learners.

The alternative?

Consider what the problem is that you are trying to solve before you commit to buying a phonics program.

If the problem is your students write phonetically, and cannot read phonically irregular words, then more phonics is not the solution.

If the problems are reading comprehension and quality of writing, then invest in your library and your staff. Buy quality literature and spend money on professional learning.

The Conversation

Misty Adoniou, Senior Lecturer in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of Canberra

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Phonics

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Understanding the Reading Process – The Big Six

I am really enjoying reading Konza’s series of articles on Understanding the reading process. She has synthesised the research beautifully and written the articles in a practical and teacher-friendly way. I wish I had known a lot of these things when I was first teaching in the early years.

So far, I have summarised oral language and phonological awareness – two incredibly important foundational skills for reading, writing and spelling. Today’s blog will look at the section on phonics in her first paper and the supporting article Phonics.

Phonics

matPhonics is understanding there is a relationship between the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language and the letters (graphemes) of written language.  Once children understand that word can be broken up into a series of sounds, they need to learn the relationship between those sounds and letters – ‘the alphabetic code’ or the system that the English language uses to map sounds onto paper (Konza, 2011).

There is a lot of debate around how and when phonics should be taught but Konza stated that the empirical evidence points towards a synthetic approach. My summary will focus on this approach. The single letters and common letter combinations are taught in a discrete, systematic and explicit method that facilitates blending.

Early blending is critical and begins as soon as students know letters can be blended into vc or cvc words. This is then practised in easy, decodable text which will benefit all students but particularly those who are struggling to learn the relationships quickly. Decodable texts should be a short-term strategy to build automaticity and fluency needed to read for meaning.

Although simple, decodable texts are used to practise phonics, the research is very clear that children should be using their newly developed phonic skills in the context of motivating, connected text as soon as possible and that they should continue to have high quality texts read to them (Konza, 2011).

I really like how Konza stresses the importance of phonics instruction for most beginning and all struggling readers but that it has be to be part of a balanced reading program, one that includes rich oral language instruction and modelled and guided reading. She also states that phonics instruction should never take more time in a day than the other elements of the literacy program.

Konza also states that phonics instruction will not assist students when they encounter irregular or sight words.sight words Sight words need to be taught explicitly and systematically, followed by regular practise in context.

The goal of teaching phonics and sight words to the point of automaticity is rapid word recognition. Immediate and accurate recognition of words allows the reader to concentrate on meaning rather than decoding.

When to start and for how long?

If phonics instruction begins in prep, single letter-sounds and common combinations should be completed by year 1. By this time, letter-sound knowledge should be automated and students should be able to read simple material accurately and comprehend it. Phonics instruction continues after that in the form of spelling instruction and word analysis and continues until students are competent.

Guidelines for teaching phonics systematically

  • Teach letter-sound correspondences: in a sequence that introduces the most common sound for a letter; that occur frequently; and to begin with, separate those that look and sound alike.
  • Begin with continuous sounds (/s/, /m/ and vowels) as they are easy to blend.
  • As soon as students know letter-sounds that blend into words, help them combine them with magnetic letters.letters
  • Provide practice with connected text comprised mainly of simple vc and cvc words (eg Fitzroy and Dandelion series).
  • Extend phonics instruction beyond single letter-sound correspondences to include more complex letter patterns (double letters, consonant digraphs eg th, ch), vowel digraphs (eg ea, ai, ou) and vowel consonant digraphs (eg aw, ay, oy) and other commonly occurring patterns (eg –igh, -ear) in junior and middle primary years.
  • Extend phonics instruction to include morphological elements and structural analysis in upper primary years.

NB Do not hold students back if they are moving quickly through the sequence – the speed with which some children learn this material when explicitly taught can be surprising.

Like phonological awareness, phonics is not an entire reading program for beginning readers. Young children should also be listening to stories and information texts, reading texts both aloud and silently, and writing letters, words, messages and stories. The explicit and systematic teaching of phonics in the beginning phases of reading instruction assists students to master the code that underpins the written form of our language. The goal is for students to read for purpose – reading to understand, learn and enjoy.

Phonological Awareness

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Understanding the Reading Process – The Big Six

I am really impressed with Konza’s Research into practice papers on Understanding the Reading Process.  They are easy to read, bring attention to students who don’t come from print-rich and language-rich backgrounds and give some great ideas to focus on in the classroom. Konza identified the Big 6 for the teaching of reading. My last blog explored her take on oral language. This one is a brief summary of phonological awareness, taken from her first paper and supporting paper.

Phonological awareness

phonological awareness umbrella

Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that focuses on the sounds of speech. There are many components to phonological awareness with the most significant being phonemic awareness (the ability to focus on the separate, individual sounds in words – the phonemes). Many researchers have written that phonemic awareness of preschool children is the single best predictor of their future reading ability (Stanovich and Stanovich, 2003).

Image from www.maketaketeach.com

Being able to blend and segment phonemes are crucial phonemic skills for reading and spelling. Separating phonemes can be difficult for children because sounds are compressed and tend to overlap in speech (coarticulation).  This is easy for the listener but disguises the segments. If children cannot hear the separate sounds, they cannot relate them to letters which will make learning to read and spell an alphabetic language very difficult.

Early oral language and literacy experiences tune children into the sounds of language and prepares them to read.

 

This is a broad hierarchy of how phonological skills develop.phonological skills

Rhythm – In English, syllables provide the rhythm. Clapping beats in their names or in multi-syllabic words helps students tune in to rhythm. This is also important long-term as chunking words into syllables is an important strategy for both reading and spelling.

Rhyme – Students need to understand which part of the word is rhyming so teachers need to model recognition and production of rhyme. An early sign of developing phonemic awareness is recognising and creating rhyme as children are deleting the first phoneme and replacing it – dog, log, hog.  Word play and rhyming activities are important for any student who hasn’t had a background rich in rhyming.

Onset and rime – These are divisions within syllables. Many students will acquire this naturally but it is an important step for some before developing phonemic awareness. All syllables have a rime, but not necessarily an onset eg at ( – at), mat (m – at), dog (d- og). Oral rhyming activities build this understanding.  I have found using magnetic letters on a whiteboard also very successful – this kind of activity has also builds in movement.

Phonemic awareness – ability to tune into separate single sounds, to play with them, segment them, swap them around. For students who struggle with phonemic skills, tt is important to teach this in a logical sequence.

  • phoneme isolation – the first phoneme is the easiest, then the final and then the middle phoneme. What is the first sound in man? /m/ Last sound in duck? /k/ Middle sound in cup? /u/.
  • phoneme blending – one of the most important and requires careful attention. To begin with, use continuous sounds and do not stop between the phonemes – /mmmmaaaaaannnnn/ man When children can do this, then the phonemes can be separated /m/ /a/ /n/  Then the ‘stop’ consonants like /p/, /b/, /g/, /d/, and /t/ can be introduced. It is really important not to distort the phonemes eg pat should be said ‘paaat’ not ‘paaatuh’. After blending cvc words, help children blend ccvc and cvcc words and words with long vowel sounds.
  • phoneme segmentation – this requires children to count out separate phonemes in a word, saying them as they tap or count it. It is important to model  multiple examples of vc and cvc words before moving to ccvc and cvcc words.  eg at – /a/ / t/   2
  • phoneme manipulation – this is most sophisticated phonemic skill.  Phoneme deletion, addition and a combination of both are included in this. eg listen to train without the /t/. rain

An example of this developing phonological awareness is using the word dog. Most children could relate the to word and understand its meaning – a furry pet.IMG_0497 (480x640) (2) Rhyming words would be log, hog, bog. The word dog could then be separated into onset and rime (d – og) and then finally into all its phonemes (d – o – g). Without these experiences, children will have greater difficulty identifying the separate sounds in words and then translating the sounds into alphabetic script.

When should phonics skills be introduced? Once children can discriminate separate phonemes eg answer the questions in the phoneme isolation section.

How much time should be spent on phonemic awareness instruction? For most children, this would be about 20 hours in total which would be about 10-15 minutes a day for the first two terms of prep. After this, phonics instruction would continue.  Readiness will depend greatly on their preschool experiences and whether they have underlying phonological processing difficulties.  For some children, phonemic skill instruction may still be developing after two or more years in school but the oral will need to referenced to letters (as long as the child can detect single phonemes).

It is usually best to teach phonemic awareness in small groups and early screening such as Queensland’s Early Start On Entry to Prep will assist with this.

Principles of teaching phonemic awareness

  1. Everyone working with phonemic awareness can articulate sounds being taught accurately and clearly (teachers, aides, volunteers)
  2. When first introducing letters, refer to their sound, not the letter name
  3. Work in small groups of 4-6
  4. For children with difficulties, work in groups of 1-3
  5. Concentrate on blending and segmenting
  6. Build from easy to hard when constructing practice items (vc, cvc, ccvc, cvcc, long vowel words)
  7. Give children multiple opportunities to practice (complete three successful practice items three day is a row before you can be confident they have achieved the skill – review skill a week or two later)

Konza (2011) concluded by writing that phonemic awareness is not a complete reading program and will not guarantee reading and writing success for all students. It provides the foundation upon which independent reading, writing and spelling can be built.

 

 

Oral language

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IMG_1147The Big Six

In 2011, Deslea Konza wrote a series of papers entitled Understanding the reading process. She identified six major components for the effective teaching of reading and called them The Big Six.  They included:

  1. Oral language
  2. Phonological awareness
  3. Phonics
  4. Vocabulary
  5. Fluency
  6. Comprehension

Konza (2011) stated that although reading is difficult to reduce to a small number of components,  the big six was one way of synthesising the major findings of an enormous number of empirical studies into the components of an effective reading program.

The following blog is a brief summary of her first component from her original paper and supporting paper on Oral language.

Oral Language

Children talkingOral language is important for both reading and writing. Children who have been immersed in rich and increasingly complex conversations will have the advantage of increased vocabulary development, understanding language structure and the ability to tune in to the sounds of the English language. Competency with oral language is necessary for understanding language at a printed level as oral language will help develop strong vocabulary, strong grammatical skills and an ability to reason and infer.

It is also important for children to have experiences with books and other forms of print. Awareness of how marks on a page represent language develops from a very young age and this comes about from watching people read and write both for pleasure and other purposes and having stories and books read to them.

Oral language abilities are linked to the development of early reading skills and to reading in the middle years of primary school.  Oral language positions the child as an active, literate oral language learner and prepares him or her for the challenge of learning to read (Konza, 2011).

What do we do for students who don’t have the benefit of a language-rich and print-rich environment? These students will be further disadvantaged if this is not recognised and acknowledged by the school. As Konza (2011) states all young children need a stimulating language environment at school, but for children from these less literacy-rich backgrounds, the need is urgent and paramount.

General principles regarding oral language development

  1. Refer children for assessment if speech and language delays are significant – a hearing assessment and a referral to a speech pathologist if speech or language is delayed or different from peers.
  2. Build oral language across all year levels – oral language proficiency assists with relationships, communication, business and personal lives and employment. Teachers can continue to assist students become more articulate and sophisticated users of language.
  3. Allow wait time  – waiting at least 3-5 seconds gives children thinking time (OWL – observe, wait, listen)

Teacher language

  1. Model clear and correct use of oral language.
  2. Monitor student understanding.
  3. Adjust language according to student need.

Teaching strategies

  1. Teach active listening- active listening requires selective and sustained attention, working memory, cognitive processing and information storage and recall mechanisms. Barrier games and story grammar activities help to develop active listening and for older students, teaching note-taking skills from oral input.
  2. Build on student language – elaborate by adding new information, extend through questioning, reinforce through repetition, model self-talk, taking turns, eye contact and appropriate social distance.
  3. Build oral language development into daily routines and classroom activities – do this during roll call, transition time, collection of materials, giving of instructions.
  4. Provide opportunities for social interaction – Oral language develops better through one-on-one conversations with a better language user. Who is doing the talking in your classroom? Students need as many opportunities as possible to engage in discussions and conversations – pairs, small groups, parents, volunteers, aides.
  5. Explore books together – reading narrative texts provides oral language support for both younger and older children. Picture books can stimulate language and promote a rich discussion of ideas.
  6. Model thinking processes through ‘think alouds’ – the more difficult the problem the more likely we are to articulate our thinking processes as we search for a solution – modelling self-talk is very useful for problem solving and for managing emotions.
  7. Consider the language demands of each lesson – need to explicitly teach the new vocabulary and other elements of language.
  8. ‘Correcting’ children’s communication – most effective response is to model the correct way without explicitly pointing out the error.

Konza (2011) concluded that to help develop these critical skills, it is important to:

  •  engage in conversations with children as often as possible.
  •  provide as many opportunities for discussion and conversation with other fluent speakers.
  •  explore books together.

Reading aloud LPB Laos.jpg
By Blue Plover – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26109345

 

Reading and writing go hand-in-hand

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Writing the previous blog on Preparations to read has inspired me to quickly blog about how I have used David Rose’s Reading to Learn (R2L) pedagogy in my own teaching. I like this pedagogy as it takes my eclectic approaches to the teaching of reading and writing and sequences and integrates them into one process. It also allows for the gradual release of responsibility from teacher to the student.

Simplistically, I think of the process as a cone that spirals from the big picture of a chosen text supporting the curriculum.R2L 001 Through reading, the text  is explored at a text and paragraph level, a sentence and word group level and a word and syllable level. Through writing, the cone then spirals back out from the syllable and word syllable level, to the word group and sentence level to the paragraph and  text level connecting again to the big picture of the curriculum. I love the reciprocity between reading and writing as the two go hand-in-hand.

I have had success applying aspects of the R2L pedagogy with multi-age classes (Prep – 2 and years 3-7), with small learning support groups and with individual students. I have used the pedagogy in learning areas other than English. I have also incorporated aspects of the pedagogy when planning with teachers.

The following is a brief outline of how I applied this pedagogy to an English unit for year 7 students.

Aspect of Australian Curriculum Y7 English Achievement Standard: Creates a structured and coherent recount combining language features for effect. Creates and edits recount using appropriate grammar, accurate spelling and punctuation.

Text: Black Snake The Daring of Ned Kelly by Carole Wilkinson.IMG_1140

Day 1

Preparation to read:  I made a powerpoint presentation that had a photo of the author Carole Wilkinson, built up field knowledge of Ned Kelly, the time in Australian history and a map of where the events took place in Australia. I mentioned that the text is a hybrid text – one that combines factual information with imaginative first-person eye witness accounts and that we would be focusing on writing an imaginative recount. I then gave a brief overview of the structure of an imaginative recount.Ned Kelly

Modelled reading: I read the first few chapters aloud to the students.

Day 2

Detailed Read: I took one of Wilkinson’s imaginative recounts and did a detailed read.  Students were supplied with their own copies and highlighted word groups and words as I progressed through a scaffolded analysis of the text.  I pointed out how Wilkinson used things such as embedded clauses for effect.Capture

Paragraph level: I had the students work in pairs, cut the text into its paragraphs, mix them up and reassemble.

Day 3

Sentence level: I then directed them to a particular paragraph. In pairs, students would cut this paragraph into sentences and reassemble the paragraph.

?????????????

I  directed students to a particular sentence (I chose a focus teaching point eg a sentence with an embedded clause). They chopped these sentences into word groups and reassembled, then into individual words and reassembled. In pairs, person A would close their eyes and person B would turn some of the words over in the sentence. Person A would then read the sentence, working out the missing words.

Word level: The students selected words from the sentence that they wanted to take to fluency or had difficulty with and analysed their structure. They wrote these words.

Sentence level:  Students then rewrote the sentence.

Day 4

Joint rewriting: I selected one of the paragraphs ie introduction and with the class rewrote the passage from another character’s point of view but using the sophisticated patterns and language like Wilkinson (I practised this prior to the joint rewriting so as I could use scaffolding questions if necessary)

Individual rewriting: Students then had a go at rewriting the paragraph on their own.

I repeated this process for other paragraphs in that particular text and then other imaginative recounts in The Black Snake, over the following weeks. It gave the students daily repeated reading and writing experiences with the genre of imaginative recount, so by the time it came to their assessment, students were well and truly ready to compose their own. This approach also fits beautifully with the gradual release of responsibility, with independent practice being the ultimate goal.

NB This is my personalised and brief interpretation of using the R2L pedagogy and it is not the only pedagogy I adopt when teaching reading and writing (as I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I have a very eclectic approach). If R2L is a pedagogy you are interested in, I would recommend you are trained in its use.

 

Preparing to read

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After talking about the seven reading procedures recommended by the authors of First Steps in Reading , I really want to share a great strategy that can be used to introduce a text to students.

As literate adults, what do we do when choosing a book or text to read? Read the title? Look at the book cover image? Read the blurb? Skim the contents page? All of these are helping us decide if this is a suitable text and are preparing us to read.

Three years ago, I undertook David Rose’s Reading to Learn professional learning program. I really love this approach as it encapsulates many of the reading and writing components I have adopted over the years but forms them into an integrated sequence that allows all students to understand how language works to make meaning.  One of the most powerful aspects to this approach is using a ‘preparation to read’ prior to reading a text.

A preparation to read for literary texts involves preparing students to listen with understanding. Background information is given, along with a basic outline of the story and a summary of the sequence. This should only takes a few minutes.  I like making a powerpoint of it so that students also have a visual of what is in the story.

IMG_1134

If I was doing a preparation for The True Story of the 3 Little pigs, I would begin by showing them a newspaper and a current news article.  I would produce a copy of the original story (or an image) and ask who has read the story.

I would then display this text,  introduce the wolf and explain that he feels that the newspaper has shown him in a bad light and that this book is his version of the events. It started with the day he wanted to make a cake for his granny and he had run out of sugar, which meant visiting each of his neighbours, the three pigs, asking for a cup of sugar.bad wolf

 

Loopdeeloop via Compfight cc

 

 

As a Support Teacher Literacy and Numeracy, I would often be given a text to read with a group of students with very little notice. I became quite adept at putting together  preparations to read by quickly googling and then sharing images of nouns and places that I may have identified in a quick skim of the text.

I have done a similar thing when my own teenage children have had texts to read for school. Over the last couple of years, I have put together powerpoints for texts such as ‘The Tempest’, ‘Of Mice and Men’, ‘Riding the Black Cockatoo’, ‘The Crucible’ and ‘The Looking Glass Wars’. For many of these, I gave some information about the author, the setting, time period and the characters. These preparations helped my son (year 9/10) and daughter (year 11/12) to engage with these texts and to understand their context.

You can do this type of preparation with any text, including non-fiction texts. A preparation to read for a non-fiction text is similar to the literary text. It would involve providing the background knowledge needed to understand the text’s field, explaining what the text is about and summarising the sequence.

hookPreparations to read hook students into the text, build their field knowledge, allow them to follow the text when it is being read aloud and then assist students with decoding the text. I always construct one (visually or orally) prior to studying a text.

From science teaching junkie

Fostering independent reading

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The last two stages of the Gradual release of responsibility are You do it together and You do it alone. Coincidentally, these stages align nicely with the last two reading procedures recommended by the authors of First Steps in Reading Resource Book : Book discussion groups and Independent reading. With each stage, more responsibility for learning and reading is being given to the student.

content area conversationsFostering student talk is vital for learning, particularly when they employ the use of academic language. From their book, Content-Area Conversations, Fisher, Frey and Rothenberg state that students need more time to talk and that the key to learning is for students to talk with one another in purposeful ways, using academic language (2008).

Book discussion groups (You do it together) promote student talk. Small groups of students meet to discuss, respond to and reflect on a common text that they have chosen. Key features include students selecting their texts from a range of available texts and each student having their own copy. A pre-determined amount of time is allocated for each text and groups meet on a regular basis. Different groups can be reading different texts and several groups can be meeting simultaneously.

It is the students’ responsibility to be prepared for each meeting and to contribute to the discussion of the text.  Keeping a journal or response journal is great way for students to respond and reflect personally on the text. Another idea is to use an online forum such as an edStudio to respond to the text. There are many online discussion groups set up by authors and public libraries but it would be important to ensure these are legitimate sites.

An example of a book discussion group is a Literature circle, which I have found to be very effective and also appealing to students. I gradually introduced and modelled the roles by using one text with the whole class, before encouraging the students to run their own literature circles. My role as a teacher was then visiting each group and just listening, providing support when needed.  It is important to offer a variety of texts for students to choose from. I have offered photocopied articles or the introduction to a chapter book. It is really exciting to hear students discussing a text in a deep and meaningful way. There is a lot of information on the internet, but here is a link to Sheena Cameron’s resources on literature circles – a great start if this is something that interests you.

IMG_1138The last procedure is independent reading and of course it fits the last stage of the gradual release process (You do it alone). This is our goal – students independently reading and applying the reading strategies that they have been exposed to during the other procedures. Students choose their own texts but are encouraged to select from a wide variety of literary and informational texts (I have collected hundreds of books and refuse to part with any of them as they form a vital part of my classroom). Texts could include those previously read in the other reading procedures, other texts written by the same author and texts that match the students’ interests.  It is all about reading for enjoyment.

silent reading

When I began teaching, I knew independent reading  as Uninterrupted Silent Sustained Reading (USSR). When I first used USSR in the classroom, I also read silently but as I became more experienced I saw this as a fantastic opportunity to listen to and question students individually about what they were reading.

pgcummings via Compfight cc

Each day during independent reading, I would sit beside students and ask what the text was about, what they were enjoying, how they were applying the focused reading strategy for the week and take a short, informal running record. By the end of the week, I would have sat with each student at least once and collected absolutely invaluable data about his/her reading.

Allington (2002) wrote that dedicated reading and writing should be planned for as much as half of each day with at least 90 minutes of ‘eyes-on and minds-on’ texts. This could certainly be achieved using the variety of reading procedures recommended by the authors of First steps in reading across all the curriculum learning areas.

I will leave this blog with a couple of things to ponder. In your classroom:

  • Is your reading approach over the course of a week balanced?
  • As the week (or unit) progresses, do you use a gradual release of responsibility?
  • How much time each day is dedicated to planned reading (and writing)?
  • Are you using texts from all the different curriculum learning areas as a part of that balanced reading approach?
  • What is the ratio of teacher talk to student talk?

 

Reading together

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The goal for any teacher is to gradually give responsibility more and more to students and this needs to be a scaffolded approach.  The next stage in the Gradual release of responsibility is where teachers and students work together (We do it). Three reading procedures promoted in the First Steps in Reading (FSiR) Resource book can be used to assist in the teaching of reading: Language experience, Shared reading and Guided reading.

Connecting reading and writing is essential and the reading procedure of Language experience is perfect for combining the two. Field knowledge is built when students are involved in a shared experience such as an excursion or cooking. shared_writingThis is an opportunity to take photos and have students orally rehearse what they have been doing.  This experience then forms the  basis for a jointly constructed text.

The text is created by the whole class using their oral language and scribed by the teacher. Once revised and edited, the published text can then be used for future reading sessions and as a springboard for other reading activities, such a sequencing, sentence matching and cloze exercises.

Shared reading is exciting and interactive. All students can see the enlarged text, are able to observe a good reader in action (usually the teacher modelling strong reading behaviours) and have the opportunity to read along. Texts can be re-used several times but need to maintain the students’ interest and attention.

shared readingShared reading image

This whole class sharing can then lead to smaller groups which are differentiated according to extension, consolidation or knowledge. To add interest, I love using choral reading and readers theatre. There are so many texts that are already prepared and ready for these variations.

IMG_1134 The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs

The final reading procedure for the We do It stage is Guided reading. Guided reading enables teachers to support small groups of students who are using similar reading strategies and are reading texts of a similar level. Students should have individual copies of the text which is pitched at their instructional level. The text should provide a challenge but without being so difficult that students become disheartened, allowing practice of reading behaviours that have already been introduced. guided reading

The teacher’s role is to guide or direct students to a section of a text whereby a focus question is set. Students make a prediction and then read the section silently. They are then encouraged to share and discuss their responses, ensuring they can substantiate their viewpoints using the text.  This is also an opportunity to discuss reading strategies they may have employed to find the required information.This process is continued until the text or session is completed.

At the end of the guided reading session, time should be allocated for reflection. The text can then be made available for independent or home reading and practice activities can be developed that relate to the selected focus.

Image from www.ilmicrofono.it

 

 

The power of reading aloud

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You're never toos old

reblogged from Comfortspringsstation

My two youngest teenage children won’t like me telling you this, but at times, I still read aloud to them – albeit texts like Shakespeare’s The Tempest (difficult for most literate adults to read, let alone a 17 year old completely uninterested in navigating Shakespeare’s difficult language).

Although growing up,  I had always been an avid reader, I credit Professor Kerry Mallan from Queensland University of Technology for expanding my limited repertoire of reading genres. As a part of a Children’s Literature subject in my post graduate degree, Professor Mallan read aloud in most lectures. One example was when she read expressively from a book about some rogue cats and then she stopped, leaving me wanting more. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the author of that particular text but I do remember going straight to a library the next day and borrowing it so I could finish the story.

There began my love for all genres, with fantasy and science-fiction now being two of my favourites. I also saw the power of reading aloud to students and stopping at points that left them gasping for more.

Never underestimate the power of reading to students.

As stated in my previous blog, the authors of First Steps in Reading (FSiR) recommend seven reading procedures. Two of these procedures fit quite nicely within the ‘I do’ step of the Gradual Release of Responsibility.

The first is Reading to students – this is reading for sheer, unadulterated pleasure. A wide variety of texts should be chosen, it should be uninterrupted and daily for about 10-15 minutes. Choose texts you enjoy and encourage students to bring in texts they enjoy. Activate their prior knowledge and demonstrate enjoyment, surprise, suspense and other reactions as you read. Disrupt the flow only if meaning has been lost, allow time for students to reflect on and respond to what has been read, and make texts available for students to explore later.

I remember my long-time teaching partner, Judy and I scheduling the reading aloud to students as a daily routine. It became a routine that students looked forward to and had them clamouring for more at the end of the 15 minutes.IMG_1126

Modelled reading, the second procedure, is where the focus is on ‘explicit planning and demonstration of selected reading behaviours’ (Reading Resource Book, p11). Teachers  choose a text that allows multiple demonstrations and use clear ‘think aloud’ statements that have a single or limited focus. This behaviour is most effective when students are asked to ‘have-a-go’ at the behaviour as soon as possible after the demonstration. Sessions are most effective when they are kept to five to ten minutes.

Again the text is introduced to the students to activate prior knowledge. The teacher pauses at a pre-determined place to demonstrate the reading behaviour and this is continued throughout the reading of the text. Students can ask clarifying questions but the focus is on the teacher ‘think-alouds’. It is important to allow students to review the behaviour – a cumulative chart can be established to record the modelled behaviours.

Thinks of all those great texts that you genuinely love or are interested in and share those. Choose texts and reading behaviours that link to the curriculum you are teaching. In a world governed by technology, teachers have an opportunity to share a genuine love of reading and to ignite that passion in students.

10motivaposters-seuss

Dr Seuss poster from edutopia

Reading – a sense of urgency!

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One is seven 15 year olds doesn’t have basic reading skills. I was watching television the other night and this frightening statistic appeared on the following advertisement.

four in five indigenous4 out of 5 indigenous kids in remote communities cannot read! Recently, Lyn Sharratt, the well-renowned co-author of Putting Faces on the Data, was working with a number of Metropolitan schools in Queensland and she used a photo she had taken of a bus shelter that displayed data similar to this statistic. Regardless of age or background, Lyn repeatedly expressed the sense of urgency needed around the teaching of reading.

This is a continuing major focus for many schools in Metropolitan Queensland, so hence my quest to research as much as I can on the teaching of reading during this Easter break.

There are many schools of thought around the teaching of reading but I think all would agree that it requires a balanced approach.first-steps-reading-resource-book-1-638I have begun my personal reading on this topic with the First Steps in Reading (FSiR) Resource Book, because  of its contemporary research and developments in the field of literacy (pp 5-6). The authors of FSiR state that the ultimate aim of any reading program is to produce confident, competent and independent readers (p5).

They state that a strong foundation for a comprehensive reading program can be established when a range of reading procedures are strategically employed and where the following seven procedures have been identified:

  • Reading to students
  • Modelled reading
  • Language experience
  • Shared reading
  • Guided reading
  • Book discussion groups
  • Independent reading

These seven procedures fit nicely within the Gradual release of responsibility model  (if you haven’t heard of this model, Doug Fisher has written an easy-to-read article on its application).

The first three procedures: Reading to students, Modelled reading and Language experience allow the teacher to demonstrate strategies which will assist students to make sense of text (I do it). NB: I will argue that the third, Language experience fits more within the We do it step.

Language experience, Shared and Guided reading give opportunities for students to practice these strategies with guidance and support (We do it).

Book discussion groups allow students to apply what they have learnt about reading with their peers (You do it together) and Independent reading sessions allow students to apply this knowledge on their own (You do it alone).

My next few blog posts will focus on the teaching of reading using the seven procedures in each of the stages of the Gradual release model.  Looking forward to exploring these over the coming days.