FEBRUARY 17, 2014 TCH 264: Emergent Literacy

National Reading Panel NRP was formed in 1997 to research and assess effective literacy instructional practices Research was conducted over a period of 2 years In 2000, the NRP published a report outlining the findings

NRP Findings Concluded that there are five key components to an effective reading instruction program: Phonemic Awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension

Emergent Literacy What do beginning readers need to know about reading and writing? Strategies Presentations

Concepts About Print What are concepts about print?  Print orientation  Letter identification  High frequency words  Writing Spree  Dictation

Assessing CAPs What tools do we have to help us assess a child’s understanding of concepts about print?  Teacher made  Observation Survey, Fountas and Pinnell, Basic Reading Inventory

Keep in Mind…. CAPs assessment must be a part of authentic learning experiences Involve ongoing formative and summative assessment Provide students with a variety of ways for showing their knowledge and skills Use authentic texts Provide focused learning activities that focus on specific areas of visuality (minilessons)

Concepts of Screen Look at the following Web sites. What “understandings” about the text do people need to have to navigate the text? Ebooks: review?bookid=polinse_ &route=te xt&lang=English&msg=&ilang=English review?bookid=polinse_ &route=te xt&lang=English&msg=&ilang=English Interactive Web sites WebQuests

Ideas for teaching CAP Class books Environmental Print Charts Shared Reading and Read-alouds Artwork Film Advertisements

Definitions Phonemic Awareness: Understanding that spoken words are made up of sounds. Can manipulate and pick out sounds in spoken language.. Alphabetic Principle: Explicitly linking letter sound (phonemes) with alphabet letters Phonics: Refers to Systematic Letter/Sound Relationships Onset/Rime:  Onset—all letters before a vowel in a word (Dog- D is the onset)  Rime—what follows the onset (Dog- -og is the rime) Fluency: Reading text with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.

Levels of Phonemic Awareness Rhyming words Awareness of syllables Awareness of Onset and Rime Sound Isolation Phonemic Blending Phoneme Segmentation Phoneme manipulation Phonemes = the smallest unit of spoken language (Approx. 44 in English) (/b/ or /th/) “Phonemic awareness is the single best predictor of first grade reading achievement.” -National Reading Panel Report

Word Attack Skills What strategies and skills do readers need to “break the code”? How do we figure out words? Onset and Rime Phonics Sight Words A comprehensive reading program includes instruction in word attack and meaning making. Instructs students to use all cueing systems.

Teaching Phonemic Awareness Need not involve print Provide experiences for young children so they become aware of the similarities & differences of sounds in language. Rhyming, alliteration, segmenting, stretching, and combining sounds  Read alouds  Word games  Songs Not appropriate to spend time teaching this after children can do it easily

Phonics Phonics is different from phonemic awareness! Phonics refers to letter-sound correspondences  How letters (graphemes) are linked to sounds (phonemes)  Coming together of phonemic awareness and alphabetic principle, or the idea that speech sounds (phonemes) can be represented by letters (graphemes) Purpose of phonics instruction:  To apply alphabetic principle in reading & writing  Helps students identify words in print  Should not be the primary focus of a literacy instructional program (alone, it will not lead to fluency or comprehension)

Types of phonics instruction Synthetic Phonics  Part to whole approach  Not contextualized Analytic Phonics  Whole to part (to whole) approach  Contextualized

Why isolated Phonics is not enough The dancer came out and took a bow. 1. Recognize the unfamiliar word 2. Search your mental word bank for similar word patterns 3. Produce a pronunciation that matches a word you might know 4. Re-read the sentence to cross check for meaning (Did it make sense? Yes- keep reading, No- try something else) 5. For more complex words, look for familiar morphemes and chunk the word

Teaching phonics Use Whole-Part-Whole teaching methods: Begin with meaningful contexts and engaging texts Work down to skill to be developed and then back up to whole, meaningful texts Students must see relevance in real reading/writing events Provide a print-rich environment: Alphabet books ABC centers Letter walls & word walls (environmental print) Names Sequencing the alphabet Explicit instruction in phonics can usually be phased out by about 2nd or 3rd grade

Activities for Teaching Phonics Focus on the letter Bb  Share a book with students with frequent occurrence of the letter Bb (e.g., “Be Boy Buzz” by bell hooks)  “Bb box” for objects/picture beginning with Bb  Play games with alliteration  Have students look for the letter Bb during shared and independent reading and writing  This does not mean you ignore other letters! You’re just highlighting the letter Bb. Read and make alphabet books Make and sort words with common diagraphs, onsets, or rimes: ship, shop, sheep, etc… Read “Sheep in a Shop”