DEE BERLINGHOFF, PH.D. MOUNT SAINT MARY COLLEGE The Literacy Quality Indicators: Using Explicit Instruction

Overview Part I  Elementary  Review of background knowledge  Focus Questions  Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonics  Guidelines for Instruction Part II  Secondary  Word Study

TABLE ACTIVITY WITH YOUR TABLE PARTNER(S), DEFINE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING AND GIVE AT LEAST ONE EXAMPLE OF EACH:  Phonemic awareness  Phonics  Fluency  Decoding  Sight Words

Focus Question #1: What are the overarching ideas that should shape reading instruction, and how does a teacher decide where to focus instruction? (Bos & Vaughn, 2009)

Reading is a skilled and strategic process; Learning to decode and read words accurately and fluently is essential; Reading involves understanding the text; Reading depends on active engagement and interpretation by the reader

Focus Question #2: How are phonological awareness and phonics defined and what are examples of activities that can be used to teach them?

Phonemic Awareness The ability to hear and recognize the smallest units of sound (phonemes) Guidelines for instruction [easier  harder order]  refer to attached handout: Literacy Hierarchical Task Analyses  Please go to next slide

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics/Comprehension: Guidelines for Instruction Skills are listed in easy->hard order  Readiness: beginning understandings of print, how print works.  Phonemic Awareness:  Based on sounds, not sound-symbol relationships  Segmenting and blending  Word Attack: requires students to understand sound/symbol relationships  Progresses from teacher saying word to be identified to student reading the word(s) to be identified.  Increases in difficulty to word parts such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

Phonemic Awareness/Phonics/Comprehension: Guidelines for Instruction Skills are listed in easy->hard order  Reading Connected Text:  Accuracy and Fluency necessary for effective comprehension  Comprehension: relies on previously taught skills  Comprehension must be explicitly modeled with thinking aloud and scaffolding.

Table practice activities (attached: Literacy Skill Practice A  Phonemic Awareness (top of page)  You will do each activity with your partner.  Take turns so that you alternate every other activity being teacher and student.

Suggested reference McCarthy, P.A. (2008). Using sound boxes systematically to develop phonemic awareness. The Reading Teacher, 62(4), pp. 346–349. DOI: /RT

For students who have difficulty Core Intervention Model (Attached)  this method is used with students who need even more intensive feedback

Phonics  Ability to understand the letter-sound correspondence Synthetic phonics: teaching students to convert letters (graphemes) into sounds (phonemes) and then to blend the sounds into recognizable words. Analytic/larger unit phonics: teaching students to analyze and then blend larger subparts of words rather than pronouncing each sound in isolation. [decoding by analogy] Both approaches have a large body of research; appropriate to use both approaches.

Phonics Guidelines for instruction Phonics scope and sequence chart (Gunning phonics chapter, attached) Use explicit instruction Changing a Hen to a Fox (Attached: Phonics) Making Words (Attached: Making Words: How to; Attached: Sample Making Words Lesson )

Phonics Table Practice Literacy Skill Practice B (Attached)  You will need to make letter cards using the letters indicated on the list for Example #1.  One person will be the teacher, one person will be the student.  Follow the directions listed.  When you finish, switch roles and do example #2.  Raise your hand if you have a question about the procedure when you are completing it.

For Students who have Difficulty Code Oriented Supplemental Instruction  Attached  can be implemented by a paraeducator

Teaching Literacy to Secondary Students WITH YOUR TABLE PARTNER(S), DEFINE EACH OF THE FOLLOWING AND GIVE AT LEAST ONE EXAMPLE OF EACH:  Syllable Types (Hint: there are 6)  Affixes  Homophones  Rules

Do’s and Don’ts for Teaching Literacy with Adolescent Learners (Blevins, 2001) DoDon’t Say, “You can hear the /f/ sound.”Say, “You can hear the f sound. “ f is a letter, not a sound. Say, “What sounds do you hear at the end of mint?” Say, “What sounds do you see at the end of mint?” You see letters, you hear sounds. Say, “The letter t represents the /t/ sound.” Say, “The letter t makes the /t/ sound.” Letters are inanimate objects, they do not make sounds. Say, “The letters (cluster) st stand for the /st/ sounds.” Say, “The blend st stands for the /st/ sound.” Cluster refers to a group of letters, blend refers to a group of sounds. Say, “The following vowel pair (diagraph) stands for the /oi/ sound.” Say, “The following letters are diphthongs.” A diphthong is a sound, a diagraph (vowel pair) is a group of letters.

Syllable Types Review 6 Syllable Types Practice 6 Syllable Types  Literacy Skill Practice C

Decoding Multisyllabic Words Decoding Multisyllabic Words (Attached) Practice with examples

Decoding by Analogy  Teaching Decoding by Analogy Handout  Practice:  Taking turns, each partner will do two words following the strategy.  Use the words on the list (assume the student does read the sentence in context).

Teaching Rules (Blevins, 2001) Rules for teaching rules:  Don’t make rules the emphasis of instruction.  Teach only the rules that are must useful/generalizable.  Emphasize application of rules rather than saying them.  Never teach rules as absolutes  Very early studies showed that less than half of rules taught in elementary school work as much as 75% of the time.  Sample rules and their utility attached (Teaching Rules)

Affixes Teaching prefixes, suffixes, roots  Need to teach all types  Need to focus on root types (Greek, Latin, etc.)

Explicit Instruction in Structural Analysis Teach words that have several elements  focus on teaching students how to use the word parts to figure out the word’s meaning.  start with familiar word parts (un) so students can pair that with unfamiliar words to figure out the meaning  be sure to pair with non examples (e.g., uncle, union) so students see that not all words that begin with un mean not… Be sure instruction has all elements of explicit instruction  students need to know why they are learning specific words, where they will use them, and be given opportunities to practice using them

Explicit Instruction in Structural Analysis During instruction, rely on concrete examples  When reading, connect the word’s meaning to its role in the sentence Be sure students are aware of the limitations of structural analysis  all words need to be analyzed to be sure the meaning makes sense Application and practice are the keys to success!