Coaching Word Recognition

"Coaching is a highly effective instructional technique in which teachers craft instructional cues that enable students to apply their developing reading skills and knowledge of strategies as they attempt to complete a task."

This quote was posted in Clark's article, "What can I say besides 'sound it out'? Coaching word recognition in beginning reading."  I love that Clark focused on coaching students rather than teaching.  By coaching, you encourage students to learn for themselves while encouraging them to apply the topic to their own lives.

Specifically when coaching, Clark recommends:

• Providing "general cues to promote thought" - Rather than giving your students the correct answer, give them guidance questions such as "Why?" questions to initiate their thought processes.
• Engage all students in the discussions.  When one student asks a question, ask for the other students to respond with what they think.
• Small groups are a great way to coach a smaller group of students for a shorter period of time (10-15 minutes).

In Cunningham and Allington's textbook, they suggest the following ideas to teach word recognition:

• Write a sentence on the board.  Cover the last word and see if the students can guess the word based on context clues.  If they are struggling, show the first letter of the word.
• List words the students know.  Then list words that rhyme and have a similar spelling.  This will help the students recognize the words.
• Play hangman.  Draw blank spaces on the board and allow the students to guess the letters that make up the word.

Here is a sample lesson idea to coach word recognition:

http://www.mpmschoolsupplies.com/ideas/3128/bubble-wrap-sight-words/

On the bubble wrap, write different sight words.  As the students recognize a word and pronounce it correctly, they can pop the bubble.  This provides a fun interactive way to learn!

1.  Do you have any ideas for ways to encourage word recognition in the students' everyday lives rather than only teaching it during the daily lesson?

2.  I have trouble remembering what it was like when I first started recognizing sight words.  Do you remember when you began recognizing words and what that was like for you?

Phonemic Awareness

The word 'book' has one syllable.  We have all known that since early elementary school years.  Some may count syllables on their fingers while others may clap for each syllable.  Both ways accomplish the same task of finding the syllables.  

Identifying syllables is just one part of developing literacy for students and increasing phonemic awareness.  The articles this week named a few ways to help develop literacy and phonemic awareness, such as:

• Have every student write in their own format then explain that each student may write differently and that is okay.  For example, one student may draw pictures then label them; another may start to form words based on the sounds of the letters.
• Practice repetition and rhyming with nursery rhymes, such as "Humpty Dumpty"
• Connect letters with common words or names to help students better understand, for example have them name a student in the class who's name starts with the letter 'M'

These are just a few ideas for developing literacy in the classroom.  In the IRA/NAEYC position paper, the motto "challenging, but achievable" was used.  I like this quote as it is very relevant when teaching students more abstract concepts, such as syllables.

Here is an idea for teaching phonemic awareness in the classroom:

http://mrsriccaskindergarten.blogspot.com/search/label/Phonemic%20Awareness

The activity above is called the Sound Hop!  Students will be given a word.  As they sound out the syllables, they will hop to a new circle with every new syllable.  This would be a great lesson especially for students who learn best from hands-on activities.

I will leave you with two thoughts:

• How do we know when to add accents to words in a sentence?  How do we best teach this to our students?  For example, these two sentences are not pronounced the same, even though they look identical.
• "I play the bass guitar."
• "I caught a bass fish."
• I find it so intriguing that we learned the basis of phonemic awareness at a young age and still use it everyday.  How do we make sure as teachers that we form a solid foundation and understanding of phonemic awareness in order to foster literacy for the student in the future? 

Building the Literacy Foundation

Building the literacy foundation for students starts at home and continues in the classroom.  Cunningham and Allington, the authors of the textbook Classrooms that Work write about "Building the Literacy Foundation" and how to do that in the classroom.  Some ideas are:

• Discuss why we read and write with students
• Encourage writing
• Allowing time for both independent and group reading time (see previous post, "How to Teach Reading" for more details)
• Develop phonemic awareness 
• Teach letters and sounds

The activity below will help with many of the above points that Cunningham and Allington highlight.  For the activity below, students will each receive a q-tip (you can substitute with using their fingers or a pencil) and a ziploc bag filled with hair gel, glitter, and food coloring.  Instructions to create the substance can be found at the hyperlink below the picture.

http://www.playathomemomllc.com/2011/07/squishy-bag-a-tactilemultisensory-approach-to-pre-writing-and-writing-skills/

This activity encourages writing by allowing students to write their own words or letters using the q-tip or writing utensil.  Also, students can work on letters and sounds while at the same time working on phonics by clapping the syllables of the words they write.  This activity can be used in many ways to meet whichever standards you are trying to cover making it a versatile and useful lesson plan!

While these are all ways of creating an environment that promotes literacy in the classroom, there are many ways to do the same at home according to the article "The Jones Family's Culture of Literacy" by Amy Suzanne Johnson.  Some easy ways to do this are:

• Have reading materials out around the house (magazines, newspapers, etc.)
• Demonstrate the importance of reading by taking time to read yourself as the adult of the home and set an example for your child
• Write letters whether that is thank you notes after a birthday party or simple just because notes

Those are just a few ways that literacy can be developed at home through simple lifestyle changes.  By making simple changes in your own life, as the adult, such as reading every night before bed, your child will imitate this behavior or at least be more familiar with the importance of reading.

In my classroom, I hope to promote literacy by teaching my students that reading is not a task to be done; it is something that we do everyday in our lives and can improve by just reading more each day.  Also, I hope to maintain good relationships with my students' parents so I can communicate with them and hear how their student is doing with reading at home while also sharing how they are doing in the classroom.

I will leave you with two questions:

1. How can we, as teachers, continue to "provide a print-rich classroom" during a time when technology is becoming so important in our students' lives?

2. As students, we learned at a young age some common alliterations and tongue twisters, such as "Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore" and those became a game and race to see how quickly we could repeat the same line without messing up.  Sayings like these will help students with phonetic awareness.  Are there other common sayings to help with sounds that we can introduce to our students and practice memorizing for emphasis?

How to Teach Reading

Every teacher is different.  Some may assign reading homework every night.  Others may have you read 30 minutes every day.  While some may have you read for a large chunk of time during both times of the day.  So what is best?

Both texts, written by Cunningham and Allington, agree that reading often is the most important, whether that is while reading an assignment or having a designated reading time in the classroom.  This leads to improvement in student's literacy and reading ability.  

How do teachers know if students have improved?  Allington's article recommends testing the students on an individual basis for a pre- and post assessment to look for improvements.  Both Cunningham and Allington in the text recommend having time for sharing with other students.  Students best comprehend what they read when they explain it to someone else and share with their classmates.  

https://learni.st/boards/18043/learnings/236393-marci-coombs-bulletin-board-ideas-

As a teacher, having an assortment of books will allow students the opportunity to choose titles that are more appealing to them.  For example, as pictured above, I could create a "Readbox" similar to Redbox movie rentals.  This well known logo would appeal to students while giving them the freedom to pick books of interest to them.  Also, I want to have a reading corner so that students can feel comfortable in their environment and willing to take risks when reading new books.  Lastly, I want to create a small group setting where students can share with other students about the things they find interesting in their books.  

Allington and Cunningham both made great points about how to help create an environment that is suitable for young readers and how to best help them improve their literacy.  But, I am still left with two questions:
1. How do you best encourage students to step out of their comfort zone and start a new book that may seem challenging at first?
2. Why do some students, like me, dislike reading in primary school then grow to enjoy it by the time they reach secondary school?  Can something be done differently to prevent the delay in finding the enjoyment in reading?