Aren't we all still hooked on phonics?

This week's Classrooms that work chapter 5 :Teaching phonics and spelling patterns had tons of ideas for games and activities to pump up your class about phonics! Whether it be creating a mock Wheel of Fortune to perfect letter patterns or using "The Nifty Thrifty Fifty" to add to a student's mental word bank, this chapter provides plenty of ideas. I especially loved the excerpt about helping ESL students connect the two languages and understand how to perform well within the English language.It gives teachers plenty of starting points in connecting spelling, reading, and think-alouds. Plus I feel like my classroom needs interactive games and ways to keep learning interesting. Perhaps I can incorporate creativity in my lesson too. Maybe after we learn a new word, I can nominate different students to create a dictionary definition of said word and perhaps an illustration. After all the students create one, we can make a classroom dictionary. Each page can also contain words that rhyme with the word, that start or end the same way, or even homophones that sound the same but have different meanings.

What do you guys think? Is this interesting for the class?

The other article we read, Kathleen Clark’s  What can I say besides 'sounding it out?' Coaching word recognition in beginning reading gave a play-be-play on how to properly engage your class and help them through the problem of not knowing a word. If generalizations don't work, than you as the teacher dive deeper until the student understands the word and how it fits within context. This article was great because it taught teachers to not give away the answer, but instead make students think through the situation and get the answer on their own through guidance. It would also help keep the lesson interactive and less about me standing up there telling kids the rules of reading instead of showing them how to read by using what they already know. I really like this worksheet to the left because it helps kids understand the dreaded vowel sounds. Some of you may be anti-worksheet, so if this isn't your cup of tea, what would you use in your classroom?

We all need help sometimes, so what other games should I incorporate in my room?

Phonemes are the best!

We are all studying to be teachers. However, besides teaching our children we must also entertain them in the process. What good is chanting A is for apple if our students don't understand that A makes the /a/ noise? Our readings for this week were quite thorough on the subject. Yopp & Yopp's article Supporting Phonemic Awareness in the Classroom demonstrated some fun ways to incorporate games into phonemic games in the classroom. I loved them! They were all fun and interactive!

Here are the ones I want to incorporate in my classroom:

• Clap the syllables to our names EM *clap* I *clap* LY *clap*
• Count the letters in the classes' names and make a chart
• go over the longest and shortest names and discuss how we figured this out.
• Read a silly rhyming book and see if my students can guess what the real word is

• kurtle for turtle, zat for cat and so on        

 Which ones did you guys like from the reading and why?

NAEYC & IRA's article, Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children  reiterated a lot of the concepts and also gave me so many ideas for reading in my classroom. I loved their idea of giving each students a minimum of 5 books to read and placed comprehension ahead of "Accuracy." So many people focus on kids "reading" a word, and not understanding the word. We need to build our student's "up" with the reading confidence, not tear it down because they aren't perfect. Read-alouds are going to be my go to lesson for reading everyday. We will capture intrigue and spark classroom dialogue, giving my students critical thinking skills and so on. 

Anybody have any ideas on how to improve critical thinking skills?
                                                                                                                      


The last reading was my favorite because it inspired me the most. Primary Voices: k-6 Letting go of the letter of the week made me want to start planning writing activities right now. I loved how they said that ALL students come into class knowing how to read and write. All kids can read McDonald's and all kids can write, even if it's just in scribbles. The part I loved most was her classroom wrote everything and thought-aloud together while doing it. These kids not only learned writing skills but also critical thinking skills and how to edit. We should all remember that literature is everywhere. I want to start collecting well-known objects for my students to read to me on the first day!

What did you guys think of the article? Did it inspire you like it did me?



Before I go, I will leave you teachers with this fun phoneme chant and let's all get creative :

R is for reading experiences

Anyone who has/worked with a young child has probably seen this very presentation of a small child "reading" a beloved book. We all know that this pretending is an example of repetition and eventual memorization. However, I find the fact that this little girl wants to read so bad that she has memorized a book is so inspiring! Chapter 3 of Classrooms that Work shows many different tools on how to keep the desire to read alive and to offer ideas for different literary practices.  I work in a preschool, so the ideas in this chapter have really got my creative juices flowing. Everybody knows this form of alphabetical learning:

But how can we make it more interesting??

The answer is names!!!! Every teacher is going to have the perfect repertoire of student names to use. Whether is be learning that Carlos and Candace both start with "C" or that Maya is shorter than Layanne, namesakes offer powerful tools for learning jargon. Chapter 3's version of this really helped me with this idea. I don't know about you guys, but I totally want to try this! 

The other reading from Johnson's The Jones Family's Culture of Literacy my eyes were opened to the familial influences on reading. We all know that the article showed one female-centered family helped a student in her experiences with reading and writing. This multi-generational African-American family emphasized reading and did so with whatever was handy. From newspapers to mental representations of recipes, these women constantly used reading and writing in their lives. Teachers need to remember that all families are different, and in a perfect world everyone would help their kids learn the basics before school.

But our world isn't perfect, and kids will come into school with all different abilities, strengths, and weaknesses in regards to literacy. It is important to understand and use these tools to the best of our abilities. I want to become well-versed in all cultures my students are involved with and learn different teaching angles because of this. What do ya'll think? Is this a good idea, or just a head-ache inducing plan? Let me know! From the textbook reading, I also learned how important it is to allow students to experiment with reading and writing, and enable creativity. Many teachers want to correct this: 

but in reality, this practice will help students perfect their reading skills, and encourage them to explore this new world of knowledge. It may also foster a desire to "pretend read" with friends, teachers, and parents like the video we started out with. So a good teacher, plus a student with desire to read, ends up turning into:

As a future educator, I want to learn how to incorporate these

elements into the daily grind as to better inspire my students about learning and literacy. What do you guys think? Are these useful tools for the classroom? Would you do them? What else might help within the classroom? Let's share some ideas below in the comments section.

Successful Classrooms and Reading Programs that inspire

The reading assignments for this week were surprisingly cohesive and similar. Chapter 1 of Classrooms that Work and the article What I've learned about Effective Reading Instruction (Cunningham and Allington) most especially. Both taught what Cunningham and Allington's article said were the most effective T's of education

Their article on the 6 T's of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction gave these important markers for a successful classroom:

• TIME
  
• TEXTS
• TEACHING
• TALK
• TASKS
• TESTING

All of which coincide with the first chapter in Classrooms that Work. As a future educator, I appreciated the repetition of these concepts under synonyms because it restated their importance in producing exceptional teachers with students to match. All students can learn to read and write given the correct materials and educators. In order to discover these fluid ideas the T's enable a quick glance for success  


TIME refers to the amount students are reading each day in the classroom. The best teachers develop a sort of 50/50 rule according to Cunningham and Allington. Reading and writing are equal to the other parts of the day. Students do just as much reading and writing as they do math and other forms of educational "stuff." This also means utilizing time with cross curricular connections INCLUDING using science and social studies. Both are the knowledge part of curriculum (Classrooms that Work), and are therefore very important to integrate in order to allow for comprehension practice and other guided reading strategies. Extensive reading gives both guided and independent reading options. 

TEXT needs to be extensive and plenty. One size does NOT fit all. Nobody wants to read something that is incredibly hard and not easily comprehended. Students included. By gauging student's "Status" with reading like what Chapter 2 of Classrooms that work recommends, a teacher can learn strengths and weaknesses of the students. At the end of the year this survey can be given again to show student progress throughout the year, which can give a sense of pride! 

TEACHING means giving active instruction! The biggest tool being Demonstration. Model yourself with the students. Show critical thinking skills aloud. Develop a "let me demonstrate" complex to make sure your students understand what you want from them. Remember assessments don't teach, they grade. Make sure what you teach is what they learn. If they're regurgitating information on an assessment, but don't comprehend any of it, the lesson was for nothing. Teachers must also remember that students learn differently and incorporate teaching within the class as a whole, small groups, and to individual students. More needs can be met in this way. 

TALK involves EVERYONE speaking. Teacher to student, but also student to student. Conversations should be encouraging, model-centered, and supportive. A great way to think of this form of speaking is "problem-posing/problem-solving." Ask questions with multiple answers, not right/wrong assessments. It is important to allow students to explore their critical thinking skills and how problems can be solved many different ways. 

TASKS go beyond simple worksheets, and one-day assignments. The more time someone has for an assignment, the more in-depth it can become. Cunningham and Allington talk about writing tasks lasting 10+ days! Students can explore many different facets within the assignment and in return help self-monitor themselves and create a sense of responsibility within themselves. It also shows behavior modeling skills of what is expected.(Classrooms that Work) When a student knows what is to be expected with assignments, this will carry over into behavior, making discipline effective and quick. Beyond time and expectation involves a student's choice in the assignment both Chapter One and the article state many times the importance of a student getting to choice what they do within reason of course. It allows them to feel enthusiastic about an assignment and not feel it is a task to "get done." 

TESTING means grading students on effort, responsibility, AND assessment (Cunningham and Allington). The article What I've Learned about Effective Reading Instruction extrapolates on the idea of rubric-based evaluations. Where both students and parents understand the grading scale and how the assignments is evaluating so much more than "Right and Wrong". It gives importance to progress within the student. This responsibility on grading goes to the students when the understanding of "good students can't skate through assignments and bad students won't automatically fail" is exterminated. 

While both manuscripts provide very similar information Chapter 1's Classrooms that Work speaks more about effective classrooms which also moves into Chapter 2's information on Creating Enthusiastic and Independent Reader. Chapter 1's effective classrooms involve variety books EVERYWHERE in the classroom. Which expands in Chapter 2 by showing the importance of variety (fiction, non-fiction, etc) Enthusiastically independent readers are both boys and girls. Boys need their action and logic just as much as girls need their mystery and wanderlust. Variety gives everyone a chance to read it all. 

Chapter 2 expands on teacher read-alouds by stating and restating the importance across grade levels. How are students supposed to enjoy 20 minutes of independent reading without their teacher pumping them up? Most people say that their teacher reading to their class motivated them to want to read. 

Other motivators include:

• Big Buddy reading which allows weak readers to work on their game without feeling like they're reading "baby-books." 
• "easy books" and "hard books" being available for students to read
• teacher involvement conferences
• Conversations with students include:
• "Why did you like this part?"
• "Wow I'm learning so much about desert animals because of you!"
• "I saw this book in the library,and thought of you because..."
• Books boards where students rate books and debate them
• book talks where students "sell" books to one another
• Reading parties which encourage conversations on favorites and why between small groups
• reading attitudes
• not a chore
• intrinsic value
• knowledge is power

In conclusion, these reading have given me so many ideas for my own classroom, and I cannot wait to put these ideas into real life.