Zoom Keeping
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Instructional Strategies for Teaching
Reading Foundational Skills:
Webinar 4
Alphabetic Principle and Phonics
in service to systematic and explicit foundational reading skills instruction
Learning Facilitators
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Objectives (for the Series)
Agenda for Session # 4
Materials for Session # 4
http://bit.ly/DPIEarlyLitMaterials
Website (for recordings and FRST):
https://dpi.wi.gov/reading/professional-learning/reading-foundational-skills
Referenced frequently:
Previous Webinars
https://dpi.wi.gov/reading/professional-learning/reading-foundational-skills
Webinar 1: Using the Foundational Reading Skills Tool (FRST)
Webinar 2: Phonological Awareness
Webinar 3: Phonemic Awareness
Webinar Series: Guiding Principles
FRST Foundational Reading Skills Tool |
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Reading Process |
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Explicit and Systematic Instruction |
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Decoding is PART of Meaning Making
“Decoding alone does not equate to reading or understanding the messages of print, but a lack of decoding will prevent students from experiencing reading success. By directly teaching phonics skills, it becomes possible for students to figure out the printed words they need to make meaning.”
https://iowareadingresearch.org/blog/the-importance-of-phonics-instruction-for-all-students
Reading Process Graphic
Thinking Point
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Agenda for Session # 4
What is the alphabetic principle?
The understanding that:
Learning that there are systematic, predictable relationships between sounds and letters allows children to apply these relationships to both familiar and unfamiliar words, and to begin to read with fluency. (Reading Rockets)
What is phonics?
Phonics is the study of the relationship between sounds and letters. (ILA)
The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be able to use the alphabetic principle. Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. (Reading Rockets)
Systematic and Explicit Phonics Instruction
Systematic means that the instruction builds from easy to more complex skills with built-in review and repetition to ensure mastery.
Explicit means that sound-spelling correspondences are initially taught directly to students, rather than using a discovery, or implicit, method.
Blevins, xxv, A Fresh Look at Phonics
More Information
Important Definitions
Letter-sound correspondence: A sound associated with a letter.
Continuous sound: A sound that can be prolonged (stretched out) without distortion (e.g., m, s, f, a).
Stop sound: A sound that cannot be prolonged; a short, plosive sound (e.g., t, k, d).
Most common sound: The sound that a letter most usually represents when it appears in a short one syllable word (e.g., red, cat, pill).
Approaches to Teaching Phonics
Analogy phonics: Teaching students unfamiliar words by analogy to known words (e.g., recognizing that the rime segment of an unfamiliar word is identical to that of a familiar word, and then blending the known rime with the new word onset, such as reading brick by recognizing that -ick is contained in the known word kick, or reading stump by analogy to jump).
Analytic phonics: Teaching students to analyze letter-sound relations in previously learned words to avoid pronouncing sounds in isolation.
Embedded phonics: Teaching students phonics skills by embedding phonics instruction in text reading, a more implicit approach that relies to some extent on incidental learning..
Approaches to Teaching Phonics
Phonics through spelling: Teaching students to segment words into phonemes and to select letters for those phonemes (i.e., teaching students to spell words phonemically).
Synthetic phonics�Teaching students explicitly to convert letters into sounds (phonemes) and then blend the sounds to form recognizable words.
How do readers access words?
Word reading can happen in four different ways (Ehri, 1991,1994):
(NRP, 2-107)
Importance of Systematic Instruction
“Findings provided solid support for the conclusion that systematic phonics instruction makes a bigger contribution to children’s growth in reading than alternative programs providing unsystematic or no phonics instruction. “ (NRP, 2-92)
Importance of Systematic Instruction
The NRP concluded that early, explicit, systematic phonics teaching gives kids a learning advantage. Systematic, not synthetic.
(Systematic means that the phonics instruction followed a scope-and-sequence, the teacher didn’t just teach phonics as she thought kids might need it.)
Why Teach Phonics
Role of Recognizing of Words by Sight
“Processing letter-sound relations in the words through decoding or analogizing creates alphabetic connections that establish the words in memory as sight words (Ehri, 1992; Share, 1995).” (NRP, 2-107)
Keep the End in Mind
“It is important to recognize that the goals of phonics instruction are to provide children with some key knowledge and skills and to insure that they know how to apply this knowledge in their reading and writing. Phonics teaching is a means to an end. To be able to make use of letter-sound information, children need phonemic awareness. That is, they need to be able to blend sounds together to decode words, and they need to break spoken words into their constituent sounds to write words. Programs that focus too much on the teaching of letter-sounds relations and not enough on putting them to use are unlikely to be very effective. In implementing systematic phonics instruction, educators must keep the end in mind and insure that children understand the purpose of learning letter-sounds and are able to apply their skills in their daily reading and writing activities.” (NRP, 2-96)
Thinking Point: Background Information
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Agenda for Session # 4
Alphabetic Principle and Phonics within
WI’s Standards for English Language Arts
Phonics and Word Recognition - Kindergarten | Phonics and Word Recognition - Grade 1 | Phonics and Word Recognition - Grade 2 |
RF.K.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
| RF.1.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
| RF.K2.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.
○Know when to drop the final e when adding an -ing, -ed endings. (Silent-e vowel pattern base word). ○Know when to double the final consonant when adding a suffix. -ing, - ed.
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Role of Letter Names
Knowing the letter names is a first step in phonics instruction and is associated with later success in reading.
When to Begin Phonics Instruction
Phonological awareness skills and a growing understanding of concepts about print need to be prioritized prior to and in tandem with instruction in the alphabetic principle and phonics.
“Concept of word in text develops in parallel with students’ phonics knowledge of letter–sound correspondences (e.g., learning that the letter b makes the /b/ sound by repeatedly seeing b words in a text).” (p.3)
When to Begin Phonics Instruction
(NRP, p. 2-93)
Phonics = One Component
It is important to emphasize that systematic phonics instruction should be integrated with other reading instruction to create a balanced reading program.
NRP, 2-97
Thinking Point: Scope and Sequence
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Agenda for Session # 4
FRST: Phonemic Awareness within
the FRST (Foundational Reading Skills Tool)
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FRST: Sample Statements
Instructional Practices: Alphabetic Principle (p. 16 - 17)
Instructional Practices: Alphabetic Principle (p. 18 - 20)
Agenda for Session # 4
Guiding Principles
Alphabetic Principle
https://www.readingrockets.org/article/alphabetic-principle
What letter-level skills must be considered?
What do children need to know about letters?
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Instructional Practices: Alphabetic Principle
Develop awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters
From IES Study
Alphabetic Principle: Guidelines for Planning
Reading Rockets- The Alphabetic Principle https://www.readingrockets.org/article/alphabetic-principle
Alphabetic Principle: Rate and Sequence of Instruction
Tips for Teaching “the ABCs”
When teaching children the traditional “alphabet song”, avoid confusions with L, M, N, O (sometimes understood by children as a unit “elemeno”) by using different versions of the song (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, or pointing to the letters on an alphabet chart while signing the song).
When singing or chanting the traditional “alphabet song”, consider not saying “Y and Z” at the end. We can inadvertently confuse children with our own sloppy articulation when we sing “Y ‘n Z”. There is no letter in between Y and Z, and certainly not a letter “N”.
Blevins, Phonics A to Z, pg. 33
Book Suggestions
Additional Considerations
Teacher language is critical when helping students distinguish between:
Use of a Uniform ABC Chart
ABC Chart - Example
The chart should include:
Thinking Point: Alphabetic Principle
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Phonics
“The CCSS do not specify how phonics is to be taught. Rather, they specify that children should know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.” (Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, 2015, p. 172)
“Because it is not clear how phonics is best taught (and because all children might not learn best with any single method), phonics instruction should include a variety of activities, including letter-sound, spelling, and analogy instruction.” (Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, 2015, p. 173)
Phonics: Instructional Practices
Teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words.
IES Study
Irregular High-Frequency Words
“Knowledge of high-frequency words is necessary for fluent reading. Although many high frequency words carry little meaning, they affect the flow and coherence of text. Many of these words are considered “irregular” because they stray from the commonly taught sound-spelling relationships. …. Children need to be taught “irregular” high-frequency words with explicit instruction.”
Blevins, Phonics from A-Z, p. 173
High-Frequency and Sight Words
High-frequency and sight words that are most problematic and require the most practice and review:
Blevins, A Fresh Look at Phonics, pg. 136
High-Frequency Words: Best Practices
“Research shows that readers store ‘irregular’ words in their memory in the same way they store ‘regular’ words.” (Gough & Walsh, 1991; Lovett, 1987; Treiman & Baron, 1981).”
(Blevins, p. 143).
Thinking Point: High-Frequency and Sight Words
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Phonics: Common Terms
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Decoding: learning to read words by recognizing and stringing together sounds
Encoding: using letter sounds to write
Automaticity: the act of decoding that is done so rapidly it seems the word has been recognized as a whole
Word Recognition: learning words as wholes, recognizing words in the moment of reading
Graphemes: letters or groups of letters that represent sounds
Sound and Spelling Pattern: the phonics-based skill of focus in a scope and sequence, usually a letter, letter pair, or word part
Phonics Skills
Blending is the process of reading a word systematically from left to right by combining each successive letter or combination of letters into one sound.
Chunking is a type of blending in which students read the sounds from left to right but add each sound to the previous sound before going on to the next sound in the word.
Sounding out a word is a type of blending that involves saying the sound of each letter or letter combination one by one until the end of the word, and then saying them all together again quickly.
Six Syllable Types
See Appendix 2, WI Standards for ELA
Phonics: What do children need to know?
Common Sound-Spelling Patterns
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Instructional Practice: Elkonin Letter Boxes
Instructional Practices
Additional Instructional Practices
Alphabetic Principle
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Word Building
Word Building: Teacher has student use a limited set of letter cards or magnetic letters to build a series of words that vary by one or two letters.
Example: Word building set for short -u might include the letter cards (u, b, c, g, p, r, t) and a series of words to build in this sequence (up, cup, cut, but, bug, rug).
Word Sorts
Word Sorts: Students are given word cards and asked them to sort by related sounds or spellings.
Example: For short -u, students could be given the following word cards (but, cut, hut, bug, dug, rug). They would then sort the words by phonogram -ut and -ug.
To make them effective, every word sort should be followed by discussion and a question, such as “What did you notice about these word?”
Words chosen for these activities should be high-utility (i.e., words students frequently encounter in reading or use in writing).
Word Sorts
Types of Word Sorts:
Word Ladders
Word ladders involve changing one word into another by changing one letter, or set of letters, at a time. Each change creates a new word, and each new word is a rung on the ladder.
Word ladders are a great way for students to play around with words while learning new vocabulary.
Word ladders can easily be differentiated for all levels.
Blending: What is blending?
“Blending is the main strategy we teach students to decode, or sound out, words.” (Resnick & Beck, 1976)
Blending
Blending: Tips for Success
Blending Lines
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During blending, the teacher lists words with the new target phonics skill.
Sample blending line for target skill of learning the short -u sound.
Words for Blending: up, cut, cup, mug, but, duck, gum
Examples of blending lines that increase in difficulty:
Blending Lines: Video Example
Dictated Words and Sentences
“The great benefit of dictation is that it can accelerate students’ use of taught phonics skills in their writing.” (Blevins, p. 91)
Decodable Readers
Decodable Readers
“It is critical that students have the opportunity to practice the phonics patterns they have learned in the context of reading. If they do not have this opportunity, they will not gain comfort and mastery. Nor will students see a reason to use the phonics patterns they learned in isolation, and the patterns will not be solidly cemented in students’ brains.”
Achieve the Core
Additional Phonics Strategies: Multisensory
Stand Up/ Sit Down: Turn word sorts into an opportunity for movement. “Stand up if you hear a word with -----“ or “sit down if you hear the sound -----“ can add movement to a basic task.
Hi-Five Your Neighbor: Same as above, with the task to hi-five a neighbor if they hear (phonemic awareness) or see (phonics) the given sound.
If You’re Happy and You Know It: Turn a task into a song by setting it to the lyrics of kidfriendly tunes, e.g., “If you hear /s/ and you know it, clap your hands.” “If you think you know the word, yell it out!”
Do You Speak Robot? Turn your blending routine into a game by teaching students that you (or a puppet!) speak robot- one sound at a time. Students must listen to the segmented sounds and blend them together to understand the words.
Do You Speak Snail? Turn your blending routine into another game by teaching students to “speak snail”. Say words slowly, sound by sound. Students have to “guess” the word or “translate snail speak” by blending them together.
Additional Phonics Strategies: Multisensory
Let’s Hear It For: Teach students to spell high-frequency words, or to learn word parts, by cheering for each letter, cheerleader style. “Give me an A” “I’ve got your A, I’ve got your A!”
Head, Shoulders, Toes: Blend or segment words with a physical activity: students touch their heads for the first sound, their shoulders for the middle sound, and their toes for the end sound of 3 phoneme words. (Note: This task can be adapted for syllables, or more parts can be added for more sounds.)
Whisper It, Shout It: Vary any oral activity by simply varying the volume level for students when they are responding. Alternating between whispering and shouting, or adding other silly additions (say it like you’re underwater, say it in slow motion, mouth it with no sound) can bring the fun to a simple task.
Snap/Clap/Stomp When You Hear: Give students a physical activity to do when they hear a sound and spelling pattern, rhyming word, or other stated task.
Freeze Dance: Play music and let students dance. Have them freeze when they hear a given sound and spelling pattern, rhyming word, or other stated task.
Recap
What makes this instructional tool/practice/teaching explicit?
Using the gradual release of responsibility model to design instruction makes teaching explicit as opposed to incidental. Providing opportunities to practice the skill in other learning settings and over time promotes consolidation and generalizability of the skill.
What makes this tool/practice/teaching systematic?
Intentional teaching with respect to both developmental continuums, the complexity of the literacy processing system, and the unique needs of the individual creates the roadmap for systematic instruction.
Thinking Point: Instructional Practices
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Agenda for Session # 4
Equitable Multi-Level System of Supports
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Differentiation of Programs
“As with any instructional program, there is always the question: “Does one size fit all?” Teachers may be expected to use a particular phonics program with their class, yet it quickly becomes apparent that the program suits some students better than others. In the early grades, children are known to vary greatly in the skills they bring to school. There will be some children who already know most letter-sound correspondences, some children who can even decode words, and others who have little or no letter knowledge. Should teachers proceed through the program and ignore these students? Or should they assess their students’ needs and select the types and amounts of phonics suited to those needs? Although the latter is clearly preferable, this requires phonics programs [and professional learning] that provide guidance in how to place students into flexible instructional groups and how to pace instruction.”
(NRP, 2-96,97)
Students Who Need Additional Support
Early Intervention for Reading Difficulties, 2017, p. 128-129
Students Who Need Additional Support
When supporting emergent bilingual readers and writers:
Students Who Need Enrichment
Thinking Point: E-MLSS
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Agenda for Session # 4
WI’s Strategic Assessment System
Assessment
Designate what assessments can be used:
Share results between providers:
Assessment
Word Matters, p. 106
What Can Be Assessed
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Assessment Examples
Letter ID and Letter Sound Production
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Example:
Letter Identification Guide Sheet from Observation Survey (Clay)
How does this assessment guide instruction?
Use assessment results to:
Example with Possible Implications
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Jesse recognizes many upper case letters and some lower case letters. He knows many letter sounds( based on the case of the letter.)
Jesse needs targeted instruction in learning all unknown upper and lowercase letters.
Jesse needs instruction which is focused on helping him link upper and lowercase forms of letters.
Jesse needs targeted instruction in learning the correct short vowel sounds, as well as for the letters w, x, g, t, c.
Jesse also needs instruction and multiple practice opportunities to distinguish b vs. d, and h vs. n. Depending on the severity of the confusion, overlearning one letter before attempting to have him learn the other letter may be necessary.
Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words
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Example:
Hearing and Recording Sounds in Words - Student recording sheet
Clay
How does this assessment guide instruction?
Example with Possible Implications
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This child demonstrates that he knows print works left-to-right, that letters make up words, and that he can use the knowledge he has to legibly write the letter for the first sound he hears in some words.
He needs to understand how to put spaces between words (or his word attempts) (word boundary).
He needs to consistently isolate and identify the first sound he hears in words and then record that letter. Instruction can then shift to him being able to consistently segment 2, 3, and 4 phoneme words.
He needs to understand letter sequence matters when writing words (het / the), and have this explicity taught.
Depending on his knowledge of and speed in knowing letter sounds, he may need additional practice in rapidly recalling letter sounds and then writing the letters that make each sound.
Phonics Inventory
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Example:
Teacher’s Guide for Word Building
Gunning
How does this assessment guide instruction?
Example with Possible Implications
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This child is able to quickly identify / read a few cvc words. She was able to blend the sounds to correctly to identify / read two words (man and hat).
She has b / d confusion and needs this brought to her attention. She also needs opportunities to distinguish b / d using magnetic letters, and in text and in writing. She may need instruction in the path of movement (letter formation), which will help her distinguish these letters.
She needs instruction in the short “e” sound, as she is currently saying the short “a” sound for “e”.
She will need opportunities to apply her knowledge of decoding in texts which give her opportunities to decode cvc words.
Additional Assessment Considerations
Assessment data is most powerfully used when:
Thinking Point: Assessment
Pause the recording to stop and think or talk about these questions:
Universal Screening
Diagnostic Assessment
Monitoring of Progress
Agenda for Session # 4
Reading Process Graphic
Reading Process Graphic
GRR / Transfer Across Instructional Settings
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Whole Group: Strategy (Elkonin Boxes) is introduced in a whole group word study lesson. Phonics in isolation (decoding, blending sounds to identify word).
Whole or Small Group: Strategy is reinforced (near transfer) in decodable text
Whole, Small Group or Independent: Far transfer in leveled or novel text in which phonics skills must be applied.
Interactive Writing: Strategy is applied in an authentic opportunity
Reading/Writing Workshop: Skill is reinforced as a strategy that readers can use to decode and writers can use to encode, emphasizing reciprocation of reading/writing process.
Learning Facilitators
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