Become a Reading Advocate for your Child

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Become a Reading Advocate for your Child

• Alabama Early Intervention Preschool Conference
• November 16, 2009
• Birmingham, Alabama

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Todays Workshop The abilities to listen, speak,
read and write emerge interdependently

• Language Development
• Phonological Awareness
• Print Awareness and Concepts
• Early Writing
• Alphabet Knowledge

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In his book, The Educated Child, Bill Bennett
says,

• If you are worried about your childs reading
  skills, its better to be safe than sorry..
  Learning to read has to be at the top of your
  childs educational priority list. Nothing is
  more important to later academic success, so
  dont hesitate to secure all the help you think
  he needs.

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There are Many Players Involved in Helping
Students Learn to Read

• the likelihood that a child will succeed in the
  first grade depends most of all on how much she
  or he has already learned about reading before
  getting there
• Dr. Marilyn Adams, from Beginning to Read

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What isEARLY LITERACY?

• Early literacy is what children know about
  reading before they can actually read.
• Early literacy is pre-reading skills.
• Early literacy is reading readiness.

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Why Start Early?

• Learning to read is essential for school success
• Children should get ready to read long before
  they start to school
• Research shows that children who are read to from
  an early age have a larger vocabulary and better
  language skills when they start school
• Children who struggle with Phonological
  Awarenessa pre-reading skilloften struggle
  learning to read.

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What Do Children Need to Know to Be Ready to
Read?

• Language/Vocabulary Development
• Print Awareness
• Knowledge of the Alphabet
• Phonological Awareness

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• L a n g u a g e
• and
• V o c a b u l a r y
• D e v e l o p m e n t

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The Importance of the Early Years

• How early does a child begin to learn language?

• From the day of birth, a childs brain is
  receptive to learning language.

• The size of a toddlers vocabulary is strongly
  correlated with how much a mother talks to the
  child.

• Children learn to speak by being surrounded by
  speech

• Your habits of talking and listening will make a
  difference of in your childs language development

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Receptive Language

• Follow Directions
• Listen Attentively

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Expressive Language

• Expresses wants and needs
• Responds to questions
• Names pictures/objects
• Initiates conversations
• Speaks in sentences
• Imitates songs/rhymes/finger plays
• Retells simple stories

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Phonological Awareness

• Discriminate and identify sounds in spoken
  language
• Identify rhyming words
• Recognize common sounds at the beginning of a
  series of words
• Identify syllables in words

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Our children begin the process of reading EARLY
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by climbing the ladder of Phonemic Awareness
skills.

Substitution
Deletion
Addition
Segmentation
Blending
Isolation
Categorization
Identification
Onset/Rime
Syllables in a word
Words in a sentence
Phonemic Awareness
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P h o n e m i c A w a r e n e s s Activities
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How to help your child with Phonemic Awareness

• Direct teaching of specific sounds
• Clapping games
• Rhyming games
• What do you hear? games
• Stretching and shrinking
• Bumpy and smooth blending

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Listening to Sequences of Sounds

• What you need
• Objects that make interesting, distinctive
  sounds.
• Examples
• Banging on wall/table/lap Snapping fingers
• Blowing a whistle Crumbling paper
• Blowing nose Drumming with fingers
• Clapping Eating an apple
• Clicking with tongue Noisy chewing
• Pouring liquid Tearing paper
• Rubbing hands together Stirring with a teaspoon
• Slamming a book Hammering
• Sharpening a pencil Coughing
• Cutting with scissors Writing on blackboard

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Listening to Sequences of Sounds

• What do your do?
• Ask children to cover their eyes and listen to
  and identify the sound they hear
• Once the children have caught on to the game,
  make two noises, one after the other.
• Without peeking, the children are to guess the
  two sounds in sequence saying, There are two
  sounds. First we heard a _______, and then we
  heard a _______.
• After the children can identify a sequence of two
  sounds, increase the number of sounds in
  sequence.

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Un-Compound That Word

• What You Do
• You say a compound word.
• Ask your child to repeat it.
• Then ask your child to say what word remind if
  you omit one portion.
• You child pronounces the word that is left.
• Examples
• Cowboy Say it again without the boy cow
• Outside Say it again without the out. side
• Grasshopper Say it again without the
  grass. hopper
• Jellyfish Say it again without the fish jelly
• Zookeeper Say it again without the zoo. keeper
• Rattlesnake Say it again without the
  snake rattle
• Cupcake Say it again without the cake. cup
• Dishwasher Say it again without the dish washer
• Horsefly Say it again without the horse fly
• Baseball Say it again without the base ball
• Campground Say it again without the ground camp

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• Hearing Rhyming Words

• What You Do
• Say each pair or words below and ask your child
  to repeat them and tell you if the words rhyme.
  They rhyme if all the sounds are the same except
  the beginning sound.
• Start down the first column for the easiest
  pairs, followed by the middle, and then the right
  column
• Do a few at a time - not all at once.

go/top tip/lip nose/rose
in/lap lamp/camp sock/soup
yes/my rest/test tie/by
mad/sad fox/box spoon/moon
cat/rat shoe/sit man/mop
rip/bag red/ran dress/mess
out/pig my/by round/pound
hit/sit fix/mix rain/train
him/but now/nap like/lick
hop/mop sad/sheep inch/itch
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Whew! Now the Phonics Ladder of Skills!
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Phonics Skills
Prefixes Suffixes
Multi-syllabic Words
Complex Consonants
Vowel r
Vowel Diphthongs
Vowel Teams
Silent -e
Consonant Digraphs
Consonant Blends
Short vowels (VC CVC)
Letters and Sounds
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Print Awareness Concepts

• Explore the use of print and to construct meaning
• Understand that writing is a form of
  communication for a variety of purposes
• Orient picture book correctly and turn pages one
  by one

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What is Print Awareness?

• Knowledge that people read the text, not just
  look at the pictures
• Awareness of how to read a book-right side up,
  starting with the first page and continuing to
  the end the left page is read first, and the
  text is read from left to right
• Understanding that words are units separated by
  white spaces

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Ways to Help Your Child/Student Develop Print
Awareness
What Your Child Needs to Know What You Can Do to Help
Words are read, not the pictures Point to the printed words as you read aloud
Words are read across the page from left to right. Follow along with your finger as you read
A book is read turned right side up, and pages are turned from right to left. Ask your child to open the book to the first page for you. Ask her to turn the pages
Words are composed of letters. Make a sign for your childs door with her name. Show your child the letters in her name. In books show your child that the white space separates the word.
Each letter has a capital and small letter form and be written in many fonts Although children are generally taught the capital letters first, it helps if they have an awareness that there are two forms for each letter. Take one letter (for example, an A) and pint out all the different sizes and shapes of As.
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Early Writing

• Experiment with a variety of writing tools and
  materials
• Write some recognizable letters, especially those
  in own name

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Alphabet Knowledge

• Demonstrate awareness of letters in print
• Relate at least 10 letters to the specific sounds
  they represent

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What Does My Child/Student Need to Know to Be
Ready to Read?

• Knowledge
• of the

P
E
A
A
L
H
B
T
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What is Knowledge of the Alphabet?

• Being able to recognize and name all the letters
  of the alphabet

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How Important is It for Me to Teach My
Child/Student the Alphabet?

• The importance of being able to name and
  recognize the letters has long been misunderstood
  by parents.
• For many years parents have believed that thy had
  to do two things to prepare their child for
  school
• Teach their child the alphabet
• Read, read, read to their child
• Knowing the alphabet is necessary, but not
  sufficient to learning to read.
• One of the most important things your child needs
  to accomplish during kindergarten is to learn the
  sounds associated with letters. Knowing the
  alphabet can make learning the sounds easier.

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Should I Teach My Child/Student the Letter Names
or Shapes First?

• Most educators recommend teaching the skills
  in the following order
• NAMES Recite/Sing the ABCs
• SHAPES This is a B
• SOUNDS This is a B and it says /b/

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Should I Teach My Child to Write Letters?

• Yes
• If you teach correct letter formation
• If your child has good control of their finger
  muscles
• No
• If your teach them incorrectly and they develop
  bad habits
• If they have not developed finger strength and
  dexterity

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Alphabet Knowledge

• When Should I Begin Teaching My Child/Student the
  Alphabet?

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Ways to Help Your Child Develop Alphabet Skills
AGE SKILL ACTIVITY
2-4 Letter naming Sing ABC songs Read ABC books
4-5 Letter recognition Use plastic letters Read ABC books Form letters in clay, paper-mache, bubbles, sand, etc.
5-6 Letter sounds Read rhyming books Do word activities involving recognition of beginning, ending, and rhyming sounds. Match pictures of objects to letters
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Counting, Matching, and Naming Letters
G
F

• What You Need
• Set of plastic alphabet letters-preferable
  capital letters
• Mat that you make on an 11 x 17 piece of firm
  paper. Trace the plastic letters and fill them
  in, in an arc shape, so that the plastic letters
  will fit over the letters written on the arc.
  The arc should extend from the lower left to the
  lower right corner.
• What You Do
• Ask you child to count how many letters there
  are.
• Then ask your child to place the plastic letters
  on the matching letters on the arc of the mat.
• Teach her the name of each letter, introducing
  about four new letters per day. For example,
  This is the letter A.
• After she can differentiate the letter shapes and
  has been taught the names of each letter, ask her
  to say the name of the letter as she places it in
  the position on the arc.
• Repeat often, until your child can recognize each
  letter, place it over the corresponding symbol on
  the arc on the mat, and say the name of each
  letter. Generally, it takes several weeks for a
  child to master all the letters.

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Learning The Sequence of the Alphabet
A
F
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
C
X
E

• What You Need
• Set of plastic alphabet letters
• A slightly different mat made on an 11 x 17
  piece of firm paper. List the letters in order in
  a straight line across the top to provide a
  reference for the child. This time, instead of
  the letters composing the arc, draw a line to
  form the arc. Then provide three anchors by
  writing the letter A at the lower left corner of
  the arc, the letter Z at the lower right, and M
  and N at the midway point at the top of the arc.
• What You Do
• Ask your child to take the plastic letters out of
  the container and place them right side up in the
  center of the arc.
• Then ask her to find the A and place it.
• Next find the Z and place it, followed by the M
  and N.
• The child then begins with B, Then C, and so on,
  placing all the letters in order along the arc.
• When your child has finished sequencing the
  letters, ask her to check it by touching and
  naming each letter, starting with A and moving to
  Z. The alphabet across the top of the mat can
  serve as an additional reminder.
• Repeat this activity frequently until the child
  can place all the letters in the proper order
  within two minutes. Generally, it takes several
  weeks for a child to master this task.

C
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Guess the Letter

• What You Need
• Two sets of plastic alphabet letters-preferably
  capital letters
• Two 11 c 17 mats with or without the letters
  filled in on the arc
• Two brown paper bags, or cloth bags, big enough
  to hold the letters
• What You Do
• This is a game that two children can play
  together or you can play with your child. The
  object is to try to correctly identify and name
  the letters based on felling them without
  looking. The winner is the first player to fill
  in all the letters on her arc.
• The first player reaches into a brown paper bag
  and feels a plastic letter without looking at it.
  If she can correctly name it, then she gets to
  place it on the arc on her mat and choose another
  letter. She continues choosing letters until she
  makes a mistake.
• Once a mistake is made, the turn rotates to the
  next player
• The player who successfully identifies and places
  all the letters on her arc is the winner.

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Snaky Letters

• What You Need
• Modeling clay or cookie dough
• What You Do
• Roll the pieces of clay or dough into
  snake-shaped pieces for
  your child to use.
• Help your child form the pieces into the shapes
  of letters.
• If you cookie dough, make sure the letters with
  enclosed circles (i.e., o, b, d, q) have plenty
  of space inside the circle before baking. This
  will assure that the circles will not close up
  when baked.

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What does the research tell us that we should do
about language development vocabulary?
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Vocabulary

• What is it?
• to know the meanings of words read
• to know the meanings of words heard
• to use a variety of words in spoken and written
  language

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Research Evidence

• Children enter school with a listening vocabulary
  ranging between 2500 to 5000
• Vocabulary differences at grade 2 may last
  throughout elementary school (Biemiller Slonin,
  2001)
• Children who enter with limited vocabulary
  knowledge grow more discrepant over time from
  their peers who have rich vocabulary knowledge
  ( Baker, Simmons Kameenui 1997)
• 86-98 of the words recorded in each childs
  vocabulary consisted of words also recorded in
  their parents vocabularies ( Hart Risley,
  2000)

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Vocabulary Gap
Average child from a welfare family hears about
3 million words a year vs. 11 million from a
professional family (Hart Risley, 1995)
Per hour 100-hr week 5,200-hr week 3 years
WELFARE 620 62,000 3 million 10 million
WORKING CLASS 1,250 125,000 6 million 20 million
PROFESSIONAL 2,150 215,000 11 million 30, 000 million
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Use High-Quality Oral Language

• Model good language use

• Engage in daily oral language

• Read aloud good literature

• Use less business talk at home

• Use descriptive words

• Lots of shared reading and conversations about
  words

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Less Business TalkMore Conversations!

• Business Talk
• Come here!
• Stop that!
• Be quiet!
• Sit down and eat!
• Go watch TV!
• Clean your room!
• Go to sleep!
• Get in the tub!

• Conversations
• Tell me about
• How was .?
• What do you think about?
• Why is ..?
• Do you think ..?
• Who is ..?
• What do you like?

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Other Ways to Help Your Childs Language
Development
Recommended Habit Example
Rephrase extend your childs words. Child Thats a doggie. Parent Yes, its a Doberman pinscher!
Ask a clarifying question. Child Thats a man. Parent Tell me more about the man you saw.
Model more complex vocabulary or sentence structure Child See my building Parent Yes, I see the tall skyscraper you built with lots of windows so people can see the view of the city.
Ask open-ended questions Child I like that story. Parent What was your favorite part of the story?
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Read
Aloud
to
Children
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Curious George Gets a Medal
Curious shed professor Fountain pen
loop signal Funnel hurled
space suit Blotter grunting
parachute
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Things You Can Do To Create a Reading Environment
At Home

• Fill you house with books
• Establish good reading habits
• Offer incentives for reading
• Set an example for reading
• Help your child choose books

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What do Kindergarteners have to learn?

• Are we sending them ready for Kindergarten??

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DIBELSDynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy
Skills

• Quick one minute assessments that let us know if
  our students are on track to be readers. Help
  schools provide enough instruction to get
  students back on track as readers.
• Helps schools see where they need to focus to
  help our children learn to read at each grade
• Helps us see where we as parents can help at home
  to help our children learn to read

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What Big Ideas are Being Assessed?
Big Idea DIBELS Measure
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency and Accuracy
Vocabulary
Comprehension
Initial Sounds Fluency (ISF) Phonemic
Segmentation Fluency (PSF)
Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF)
Oral Reading Fluency (ORF)
Word Use Fluency (WUF)
Oral Reading Fluency Retell Fluency (RTF)
Edward J. Kameenui, Ph. D. et al
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What is Letter Naming Fluency (LNF)?

• It is a one minute assessment
• It is an indicator of risk of reading problems
• It is not one of the 5 areas identified by the
  National Reading Panel and Reading First as one
  of the critical areas of reading
• It is tested in fall, winter, spring of K also
  fall of first grade
• Students should be able to name 25 random letter
  names in one minute by the end of K

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LetterNaming Fluency

• Target goal of at least 40 by spring of
  Kindergarten
• Student identifies upper- and lower-case letters
  for 1 minute

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What is Initial Sound Fluency (ISF)?

• One minute assessment given at beginning and
  middle of K
• Outcome goal of identifying 25 first sounds in
  words in one minute by middle of K.
• Example
• Shown four pictures and told the picture names,
  the student can point to the one that begins with
  the correct sound given. Point to the one that
  begins with mmmm

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What is Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF)?

• One minute assessment given middle of K, end of K
  and in beginning, middle, and end of first grade
• Outcome goal is to be able to separate words into
  individual sounds by the end of K and to be able
  to do at the rate of 35 sounds per minute
• Reaching outcome goal critical skill for becoming
  a good reader and speller
• Continue to test through first grade, goal
  doesnt go up

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An At Home Reading Kit

• Family/Caregivers are the childs
• first and most important teacher in early
  literacy
• Family/Caregivers play an important role in
  supporting, reinforcing, and help if the child is
  struggling with reading
• Family/Caregivers reinforce and broaden the
  horizon for those children on track to be readers
  who need to reach and grow
• Family/Caregivers make the difference among, I
  cant, I might, I will, and I did!
• Use our suggestions, read on-line, work with the
  school, think up your own using ours as a jumping
  off point

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Resources for Teachers Parents
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Picture Books to Read Aloud to an Infant or
Toddler
AUTHOR TITLE
Ahlberg, Janet Allen Each Peach Pear Plum
Arnold, Tedd No Jumping on the Bed
Barton, Byron Trucks
Brown, Margaret Wise Goodnight Moon
Bruna, Dick Miffy
Carlstrom, Nancy White Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear
Gibbons, Gail Trains
Hill, Eric Wheres Spot?
Martin, Bill Jr., John Archambault Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
Martin, Bill, Jr., Eric Carle Brown, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
Numeroff, Laura Joffe If you Give a Mouse a Cookie
Oxenbury, Helen Tom and Pippo Make a Friend
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Books for a First-Grade StudentBeginning
Reader-First Stage
Author Title
Brown, Laura Krasny Rex and Lilly Playtime Rex and Lilly Family Time
Eastman, P.D. Go, Dog Go!
Seuss, Dr. Hop on Pop
Ziefert, Harriet Cat Games Harry Goes to Fun Land A New House for Mole and Mouse

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Books for a First-Grade Student Beginning
Reader-Second Stage
Author Title Title
Bonsall, Crosby Whos Afraid of the Dark? Whos Afraid of the Dark?
Cocca-Leffler, Maryann Ice-Cold Birthday Ice-Cold Birthday
Edwards, Roberta Five Silly Fishermen Five Silly Fishermen
Herman, Gail What a Hungry Puppy! What a Hungry Puppy!
Hoff, Syd Danny and the Dinosaur Danny and the Dinosaur
Parish, Peggy Be Ready at Eight Be Ready at Eight
Seuss, Dr. The Cat in the Hat Green Eggs and Ham One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish The Cat in the Hat Green Eggs and Ham One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
Bridwell, Norman Clifford the Big Red Dog Clifford the Big Red Dog
Brown, Margaret Wise Goodnight Moon Goodnight Moon
Bourgeois, Paulette Franklin in Bossy Franklin is Messy Franklin in Bossy Franklin is Messy
Carle, Eric The Very Hungry Caterpillar The Very Busy Spider Do You Want to Be My Friend? The Very Hungry Caterpillar The Very Busy Spider Do You Want to Be My Friend?

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Straight Talk AboutReading
Susan L. Hall Ed.D Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D
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• Parenting a
• Struggling Reader

Susan L. Hall, Ed.D Louisa C. Moats, Ed.D
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Road
to
the
Benita A. Blachman, Ph.D Eileen Wynne Ball,
Ph.D Rochella Black, M.S. Darlene M. Tangel, Ph.
D.
Code
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P H O N E M I C
A W A R E N E S S
in Young Children
Marilyn Jager Adams Barbara R. Foorman Ingvar
Lundberg Terri Beeler
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Bringing Words
To
Life
Isabel L. Beck Margaret G. McKeown Linda Kucan
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OvercomingDYSLEXIA
Sally Shaywitz, M.D.
July 28, 2003
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Other Books

• Beginning to Read Thinking and Learning about
  Print- A Summary by Marilyn Jager Adams
• Help Me Help My Child A Sourcebook for Parents
  of Learning Disabled Children by Jill Bloom
• Your Childs Growing Mind A Practical Guide to
  Brain
• Development and Learning from Birth to
  Adolescence by Jane M. Healy, PhD.
• About Dyslexia Unraveling the Myth by Priscilla
  L. Vail
• The Educated Child by Bennett, Finn, Cribb

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EAROBICS
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Websites

• www.proactiveparent.com
• http//www.ldonline.org
• http//www.interdys.org
• http//ggg.umn.edu/
• http//www.seacparentassistancecenter.com/
• www.kpirc.org
• www.colorincolorado.com
• http//www.readingrockets.org

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What if a child is not learning the skills I am
teaching?

• New Federal mandates on the horizon
• Response to Instruction
• (RtI)

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What is RtI?

• Re-teaching children the skills they have not
  learned.
• Providing more teaching time on these skills
• Providing different learning opportunities from
  the teaching strategies that did not help them
  learn
• Providing small group intervention
  (re-teaching)
• Providing individual intervention
  (re-teaching)

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Bottom line

• If children do not learn with the strategies we
  have used
• Work with them using other strategies until they
  do learn
• Work with them until they do learn

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• Some people there are who, being grown, forget
  the horrible task of learning to read. It is
  perhaps the greatest single effort that the human
  undertakes, and he must do it as a child.
• - John Steinbeck, 1982 Nobel Prize Winner for
  Literature

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What about time?

• Time to play (games, games, games!)
• 15-20 minutes daily
• Time to work (practice, practice, practice!)
• 20-30 minutes daily
• Time to celebrate (brag, brag, brag!)
• 10-15 minutes daily

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What We Know Now About Helping All Children Learn
to Read

• There are early literacy activities that prepare
  children to learn to read
• There are things schools can do
• There are things parents can do
• A parent/school partnership is best!

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Become a Reading Advocate for Your Child
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Contact Information

• Julie Colley Lowery, Education Specialist
• Alabama Department of Education
• jlowery_at_alsde.edu
• Cathy Jones, Education Specialist
• Alabama Department of Education
• cjones_at_alsde.edu
• Teresa Nichols, Education Consultant
• Nichols Education Services, Inc.
• tnichols_at_nicholseducationservices.com