Strategies That Support Young Readers’ Literacy Development

1. Strategies That Support Young Readers’ Literacy Development Alice F. Snyder, Ed.D. April 18, 2006

2. Reflections of the Past • Quickwrite—What do you remember about your literacy experiences (reading and writing) during your… --pre-kindergarten years? --kindergarten-first grade years? --second-third grade years?

3. “Stages” of Literacy Development • Related to how a child’s concepts about written and spoken language develops over time from his experiences • “Stages” used to give us a sense (tendencies) of what readers have accomplished, where they are now, where they are headed, and what we can do to plan for their needs at any given time • Generally speaking, each “stage” characterizes the average child at that point • “Stages” aren’t discrete—may move back and forth between “stages”, reach a plateau, staying awhile, then move ahead

4. Emergent(Birth to 5-6 yrs)Logographic (Ehri, 1991: Juel, 1991) • Egocentric; sensory contact, rapid language growth based on need • May “read” signs, labels when associated with the object, but not when isolated in print (McDonald’s, Lucky Charms) • Very young don’t find meaning in printed symbols on their own; may scribble and make letter-like forms on paper without intention to communicate a message • Begin to name & write some letters; become aware that printed texts convey messages, and they write for purpose of communicating meaning, but read & write in unconventional way; associate word(s) with picture clues; use pictures to “read” • Like rhyme, repetition, alliteration, magic and personification; like to hear their favorite stories repeated many times

5. Early Reading (K-1, 5-7 yrs)Alphabetic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • Begin to realize that meaning is mapped onto print in systematic ways • Early alphabetic- use some letter-sound correspondences • Later alphabetic- do cipher reading (decoding phoneme by phoneme); can segment words • Developed Alphabetic Principle; often spell words the way they are articulated when spoken such as ‘V’ for the PH in ‘phone’ and or ‘HAN’ for ‘chain’ (manner of articulation or identity of sound); also with affrication (‘DR’ spelled ‘JR’ and ‘TR’ spelled ‘CHR’); later may write ‘GOWING’ for ‘going’ • Later, recognize 100s of sight words; can monitor own reading and writing; begin to use strategies (searching, cross-checking, self-correction) as they monitor • Become “glued to print” which hinders comprehension • Will read familiar texts with phrasing and fluency

6. Transitional/Growing Independence (K-2; 5-7 yrs)Orthographic (Ehri, 1991; Juel, 1991) • More sophisticated and complex understandings of written language • See chunks of letters associated with spelling patterns; familiar with sequence of letters in written words which helps them see letters in groups or clusters • Not so “glued to print”; focus on meaning; automaticity fosters fluency • Word study important due to reading books with extensive vocabulary not in their reading or writing vocab repertoires • Some may be transitional spellers • Less egocentric; appreciate stories involving lives of others

7. Reading to Learn (gr.3-6; 8-12 yrs.) • Reading across the curriculum; grasping complex, sophisticated informational text • Often where many “successful” readers in primary grades begin to experience difficulties with reading—Why? • Reader needs good repertoire of word attack and comprehension skills/strategies because of complex and abstract concepts associated with each discipline (increased conceptual load) and comprehension tasks required • Can put themselves into the places of characters & can verbalize their judgments about books and author’s style, characters’ actions, etc. • Spelling more conventional; have moved from relying on sound to relying on visual memory of what a word looks like in print • Solves problems in reading independently • Reads with phrasing and fluency

8. Abstract Reading (Gr. 7+; 13+ yrs) • Between 11 and 14 years of age (formal operations-Piaget) • Can construct multiple hypotheses, consider multiple viewpoints, and can mull over logical alternatives • Make more elaborate evaluations and judgments of reading • Read and write longer, more complex and abstract texts • Readers at this stage are more equipped with the reading skills and higher level thinking necessary to read aesthetically (reading for pleasure) and efferently (reading to learn); however, they tend to do the least amount of reading! • Conventional spelling stage

9. Implications of Stage Theory for Instruction • First and foremost, provide developmentally appropriate literacy instruction and experiences for children (IRA and NAEYC 1998) • Incorporate instruction in phonics as aSTRATEGY for identifying words rather than an approach to teaching reading in itself • Gear instruction to the “stage” in which a child displays the most characteristics • Keep reading instruction functional and contextual • Incorporate a lot of practice and application through reading authentic children’s “texts”

10. Effective Strategy-Based Instruction • Should be functional and contextual; comes from what children are reading and writing and what they need • It involves… □Teacher modeling □Scaffolding □Group practice □Peer teaching □Integration

11. Strategy Instruction takes place within the Five Essential Elements of Reading • Phonemic awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension National Reading Panel

12. Strategy Activities: Phonemic Awareness • Reading aloud (shared reading) • Shared writing; pattern stories • Onset and rime activities *Word Play Books—specially designed to highlight sounds in words, such as Each, Peach, Pear, Plum (Janet & Allan Ahlberg, 1978) *I Spy—”I spy something that rhymes with…” *Rounding Up The Rhymes • Segmentation activities *Elkonin boxes

13. Activity Demo: Elkonin Boxes • From a book you have read to your students, you have chosen some one syllable word with onset and rime patterns you would like to reinforce. You create some Elkonin Boxes to use.

14. Strategy Activities: Phonics • Masking • Hinky Pinks: Large hog: _____ig _____ig Plane in the rain: _____et_____et Unhappy boy: _____ad _____ad • Secret Messages: Take H from He and put in W. (We) Take b from bike and put in l. (like) Take d from do and put in t. (to) Take l from late and put in sk. (skate) Secret message: We like to skate. • Sorts (pattern/spelling, sound) • Making Words • Word Building

15. Activity Demo: Diphthong (Sound) Sort • In your reading of a story with your class, you notice many words containing one type of diphthong. You give groups of students a set of words, some with diphthongs and some without, asking them to sort words into two columns according to whether they have a common sound in them or not. Students explain why they put words under yes and words under no. tough powerful low thrown compound fountain cow grown thousand pillow amount growl through now bowed Yes No

16. Activity Demo: Making Words • Students are given letters, such as: a, d, D, n, s, and t. • The teacher gives them the following directives: • Use two letters to make at. • Add a letter to make sat. • Take away a letter to make at. • Change a letter to make an. • Add a letter to make Dan. • Change a letter to make tan. • Take away a letter to make an. • Add a letter to make and. • Add a letter to make sand. • Now break up your word and see what word you can make with all the letters. (stand). Students could also see how many other words they can make, list them, and sort them. • Additional letters can be given depending on the knowledge level of the student(s). Cunningham, from Gunning, 2004

17. Activity Demo: Word Building • Use the following letters to create a sequence in which you change up the beginnings, endings, and middles of words throughout the sequence. Can you end with the same word you started with in the sequence? a, s, n, t, f, i, x, g sag sag

18. Strategy Activities:Fluency • Practice Reading • Choral Reading • Reader’s Theatre • Class Books • Poetry and student-written books are good sources of texts to help develop fluency • Syllasearch- helps with chunking words for decoding

19. Activity Demo: Syllasearch • You have read the book Amos and Boris (William Steig) to your students. You want your students to practice reading it to build fluency but first you want to help them identify some words with more than one syllable that they will encounter in the story. Here are some words from the story: 1.Meet the Words2.Find the Syllables3. Collect the Words: Teacher input Current “This word is current. Current hur i ga tion Admiration Read it with me. Point admiration plank mense ous tion Immense to the letters that make immense cur mir a Hurricane the /cur/ sound in hurricane lum ton es Navigation current. What are the navigation break rent cane Backwashes letters that make the backwashes ad wash Compass /cur/ sound in current? compass nav in Luminous Point to the letters luminous im ers Plankton that make the /rent/ plankton back pass Breakers sound in current. What breakers com ri letters are the letters that make the /rent/ Variation on Collect the Words: sound in current?” Students go up and find words them- Continue with each word. selves without directives from teacher. (Can also play by asking students to come up and build specific words from list.) Beck, 1996

20. Strategy Activities: Vocabulary • Concept Sorts • Vocabulary Illustrations • Thematic Word Walls • Dramatizing Words • Word Maps • Vocabulary Venn Diagram • Homophone Picture Cards • Concept Circles droll humorous funny amusing comical

21. Activity Demo: Vocabulary Venn Diagram • Some very simple words in our language have more than one meaning. A vocabulary Venn Diagram is a useful and simple way to show children these multiple meaning words. river bank fire money

22. See I see things with my eyes. Sea The boat was sailing on the vast sea. Activity Demo: Homophone Picture Cards

23. Activity Demo: Concept Circles • What do these all have in common? *What do these have in common? • Name the category or concept? * Name another word that is similar to the • ________________ other three. Name the concept/category * _______________ turtle house cottage dog parrot cat trailer ?? Which word doesn’t belong? Write the category/concept the other words represent. *______________ funny silly comical mean

24. Strategy Activities: Comprehension • Making predictions (Talking Drawings) • Making connections (T-S, T-T, T-W) using sticky notes (This reminds me of…) • Asking questions (making inferences, responding personally) ( I wonder why…?) (Why do you think…? What makes you think so? If I was .....I would…) • Visualizing, Guided Imagery; making mental pictures using sensory imaging • Using graphic organizers and story maps • Summarizing/retelling • Response journals

25. References Farris, P.J., Fuhler, C.J. & Walther, M.P. (2004). Teaching reading: A balanced approach for today’s classrooms. Boston: McGraw Hill. Gunning, T.G. (2004). Creating literacy instruction for all children. (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. McGee, L.M. & Richgels, D.J. (2000). Literacy’s beginning: Supporting young readers and writers. (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Ruddell, M.R. (1997). Teaching content reading and writing. (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Tompkins, G.E. (2003). Literacy for the 21st century. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.