Early Behaviours and What to Look For EARLY READING BEHAVIOURS… How to Look at Print….. and What to Look For English K-6 Syllabus Outcomes for Early Reading Behaviours Learning to Read ES1.5 ES1.6 Learning About Reading ES1.8 Teacher registration :

Early Behaviours Syllabus Indicators Learning about Direction shows an awareness of the horizontal nature of print knows basic book conventions begins reading front of book can hold book in correct way to look at pictures can open a book can turn pages in correct order Locating Responses points to and reads text of familiar big book recognises that a series of words makes up a text distinguishes print from drawing identifies sentences in printed texts copies print from models uses charts and resources as model for own writing assists other children to locate print from class models

Early Behaviours Syllabus Indicators Spatial layout identifies word, space, letter groups letters into words recognises that words are units of print with spaces on either side know letters are written from left to right knows and demonstrates that letters are proportional to each other Looking at Print automatically recognises whole common words by sight discriminates between letters knows the alphabet names of letters recognises upper and lower case forms recognised that words are made up of letters identifies letters beyond those in own name

Early Reading Behaviours What are these and what do they do? Through these the child begins to control his visual attention to print They give the child a way of checking that he is attending to the correct part of the page.

Early Reading Behaviours 1. Directional Movement 2. One to one matching 3. Locating one or two known words 4. Locating an unknown word 5.Prompt ways to remember words

TASK Consider these aspects in relation to the following text

Early Reading Behaviours TASK :Teachers read script WHY? Connecting theory and experience: Through the experience of attempting to read another script teachers discuss their perspectives and challenges about viewing script in another language. What are these challenges? “the child must learn to attend to some features of print, the child must learn to follow rules about direction the child must attend to words in a line of sequence, and the child must attend to letters in a word left to right in sequence.” P3Literacy Lessons

Early Reading Behaviours Think Pair Share How do I explore this? What am I looking for? What processing am I doing? Can I describe how I perceive the symbols? How can I remember 4 of them? Would it help to write them? How did my looking change on the second or third attempt? What other kinds of changes occur as the symbols become familiar? Is there an understanding of the difficulty and the challenge young children have? Record these Teachers link these observations to the process of learning to drive a car Discuss It is useful for teachers in early literacy intervention programs to briefly but seriously explore learning another script. Noting our own reactions to a new script and how we overcome the problems can help us understand more about how children come to grips with a symbol system. Teachers are such expert readers and writers it makes it difficult for them to understand a child’s challenge.

Directional Movement “This is as serious as driving on the right side of the road!” Clay 2005 p105

1. Directional Movement Left page before right page Top of the page downwards Left to right across a line Return sweep to the left of the next line Left to right across a word The use one can make of spaces What is the ‘first letter’

Suggestions for teaching Careful text selection Accept either hand(finger pointing) Demonstrate (model) the correct starting position Give opportunities for over-learning Starting signals

2. One-to-one matching Finger pointing Clear precise pointing with one finger, not ‘fluffy’ pointing

Suggestions for teaching Clear precise modelling Say: Read it with your finger Did that match Were there enough words Did you run out of words

Issues When to remove the finger? As correct directional responding becomes more consistent the teacher can begin to discourage pointing with the finger When left to right is becoming consistent at levels 1 and 2 Reading Recovery levels

Why is it important If finger pointing is allowed to persist it can get in the way of fluent reading Children focus on visual information in print and stop using meaning and structure Before long the student needs to read groups of words together (phrasing) ‘he said’..‘mother bear’..’here I am’..

3. Locating one or two known words Encourage child’s attention on early books by focussing on words he knows Prompt the child to use a special cue that he knows eg. its like your name, (hill), like the nursery rhyme we just learned, sheep Build up high frequency words by finding the same word on every page Use the known word to help monitor finger pointing 1:1 Use known beginning sounds to anticipate next word.

4. Locating an unknown word Now look at new words. That is: the word which changed on every page (interest word or context word) How did you know that was horse? ( because of the picture and/or the beginning letter) If child reads a new structure such as ‘here is the ----- ‘ then he can probably find whichever of these words was a new word.

5.Prompt ways to remember words Encourage the child to become active about ‘knowing something next time he sees it’. Say : “You need to know that word tomorrow.” “Have you got it in your head?” “Use your eyes and think about it”

Video Teachers view ‘Rachel’ video. The student is ‘reading’ and Early Behaviours are established. Teachers identify these behaviours Can teachers identify students, in their class, who do not exhibit these characteristics? Reflection: What can teachers demonstrate to these students?

TEXTS to teach EARLY BEHAVIOURS Text Features • focus on a single idea • have a simple story line • direct correspondence between text and pictures • topics relate to a child’s personal experience • include naturally occurring syntactic structures • format is consistent • layout is easy to follow • print clearly separated from pictures • print is regular clear and easy to see • ample space between words • frequently encountered words are repeated often • have one to four lines of text per page

TEXTS to teach EARLY BEHAVIOURS Level 1 texts PM pubn.

TEXTS to teach EARLY BEHAVIOURS PM Texts Are Great! These Level 2

Selecting texts Task: Using this criteria as a guide Teachers examine books from their classroom & using a selection of level 1 and level 2 texts determine the suitability of these texts for teaching Early Reading Behaviours • Discussion: What makes these texts suitable? Why are some unsuitable?

Suitable texts See Reading Recovery text level guide. Published in 2006 by the Victorian Department of Education and Training. This are available from the Reading Recovery Tutor in your region.

Important Behaviours to notice and Support Early Reading • handling books-moving text from front to back, turning pages • controlling left to right movement and return sweep • noticing and interpreting detail in pictures • using oral language in relation to pictures • matching word by word • noticing some features of letters and words

Important Behaviours to notice and Support early reading • locating familiar and new words • remembering and using language patterns • using knowledge of syntax as a source of information • using oral language with pointing -voice pointing • predicting what makes sense • self-monitoring - checking by w-b-w matching, noticing sight words, mismatches in meaning or language

Evaluation Teachers read and discuss the article “Mother is Baking”