Word Coaching & Spelling Patterns

Reading the article by Clark (2004) a year ago would have really helped me out.  At the time, I was working on reading skills with a fourth grader at Pond Gap Elementary.  She'd often get stuck on big compound words.  The only thing I knew to say, though, was sound it out because that's what I was always told to do when I was learning to read.  It was difficult to see her get frustrated and shut down whenever sounding the word out didn't work.  I'd ultimately have to sound it out for her, but I hated the fact she wasn't learning on her own.  The ideas in the article like covering up parts of the word or asking her to find chucks or patterns in the big word would've really helped her reading develop.  Even though I couldn't help her as much, I feel much more prepared now to assist other student when they get stuck.  

Growing up I never really had an issue sounding out words like this particular girl did.  The only reason, I think, I didn't was because I could recognize the smaller words hiding in the bigger words.  When I was in school, I always hated spelling. All I ever felt like we did was copy words over and over and over again.  However, after reading Cunningham and Allington's (2011) ideas in chapter 5 for teaching spelling, I realized that my spelling lists in school were teaching me more than just memorization.  They were often divided into groups of words that had similar patterns like 'oo' or 'ake.'  There were also bonus words that were usually just compound words using that week's pattern.  Knowing these words helped me the most when it came to sounding out words while reading.  Even though I obviously learned from copying spelling lists, I think I would've enjoyed learning more if my teachers had used some of the activities the book suggests.  I know that all students learn differently, though.  Are memorization and copying techniques still beneficial to an extent in spelling lessons?  Will memorization come from doing activities other than simply studying word lists?

Here's a fun idea I found! Make a "chunkapillar" each time your class learns a new chunk.  Put it somewhere visible, so students can refer to it during their reading or writing.

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Morning Message

This weeks readings explain how learning to read and write consists of learning and building on smaller concepts.  The NAEYC/IRA (1998) and Yopp & Yopp (2000) believe that literacy practices need to be developmentally appropriate.  In addition, Yopp & Yopp (2000) think that phonemic instruction is very important to literacy, but should be taught purposefully and only as part of a whole literacy program.  I really liked the idea of a morning message that was used by Donna Jarvis (2002).  I came across the video below that provides an excellent example of how a morning message can be used to practice reading, writing, and phonemic awareness all at the same time and in a way that exhibits practical uses of these skills.

She demonstrates many literacy-teaching ideas discussed in the readings.  I love how the activity incorporates chants and movements, and the students use sound associations from words they already know to determine unknown words. The teacher also helps guide their learning by leaving out parts of words and encouraging revising mistakes.  I would love to use this in my classroom because it teaches important literacy skills in a fun way and in a short amount of time.  Time management is very important in classrooms, as I've seen during my volunteer experiences, so this type of activity is ideal!  It makes me wonder how the concept of a morning message can also be used in subject areas like science or social studies?

           

Foundations for Literacy

The readings this week emphasize different ways to get children interested in and understanding how to

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read and write.  One way that Cunningham and Allington (2011) suggest is simply by encouraging reading and writing even before children can read or spell properly.  I greatly agree with their suggestion, because my parents pushed me to do the same.  In preschool I learned how to read short rhyming books, and just before kindergarten I started trying to write my own short stories.  My mom would staple a few sheets of paper together in book form and encourage me to fill it with my own words and ideas.  I remember being so proud of my books and reading them to my family and even to my kindergarten class with the support of my teacher.  I've saved those "books" over the years, and looking back at them it's difficult to decipher what I wrote.  Even though I couldn't spell or form sentences correctly, I was inspired to enjoy writing and reading which are traits still with me today.  I hope to share my "books" with my future students as a way to show them that I once started where they are.  Hopefully they'll be encouraged to write their own stories to share with the whole class as well.  It makes me wonder, though, what is the best way to encourage improvement of their writing or reading without discouraging their interest?      

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Johnson (2010) also suggests that children carry metaphorical backpacks with them into school that are formed by their family's culture of literacy.  Not every family encourages literacy in their day-to-day activities, but those that do better prepare their children for school.  I remember my family reading the newspaper often much like the Jones family.  Like Lola, the mini page for kids was my go-to section; I also loved the comics.  It helped me be more aware of different types of reading material and helped me associate reading with entertainment.  Johnson (2010) also advises teachers to use encounters with parents to get to know the families' literacy histories.  Just like being aware of my past helps me know how to move forward in the classroom, I believe knowing about my students' pasts aid in knowing how to approach teaching them.  However, I know that not every parent will be involved or attend school functions.  What are other ways to research students' family literacy histories or encourage parents to be more involved?

  

The Importance of Reading & Writing

One of my favorite quotes by Dr. Seuss is, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."  Both readings from this week really enforce this idea.  Research by Michael Knapp shows that teachers who provided many reading and discussion opportunities, emphasized higher-order skills, and integrated reading and writing into subjects like science and social studies had high achievement gains (Cunningham & Allington, 2011). However, Allington (2002) reports that many students are only reading and writing for about 10% of the day.  From this data, it is no wonder that many children are still reading below their preferred reading level.  If students are not encouraged to enjoy reading and discussing or writing about their reading, they will do it less.

It is highly apparent that teachers need to put more focus on encouraging reading since it benefits students in all aspects of their learning.  I loved the ideas Cunningham & Allington (2011) had about sharing book bins with other classrooms and reading different types of books aloud. I remember my teachers doing similar things, which made me wonder what other ways teachers could spark students' interests in reading? Many teachers make cozy corners for reading. Would making a home-like reading environment in the classroom encourage more reading outside of it? What are some ways to make reading more appealing to reluctant readers?

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