Chapter 6 Phonemic Awareness

Hello All,

I'm trying to get caught up here. So I'm posting about Chapter 6 Phonemic Awareness  now. This was another great chapter.  The lessons of course are more geared toward KK and 1st grade as you hope by 2nd grade that many of these skills are already developed or at least on their way. However, as we all know as teachers, this is not always the case. So, it's important information for 2nd grade teachers also.

What is Phonemic Awareness?  We often confuse and use phonemes and phonics interchangeably but they are different concepts.  They are both developmental and foundational to helping children learn to read. "Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that refers to an understanding of spoken words, and includes the awareness of words, syllables, rhymes, and individual sounds." Whereas a phoneme is the smallest unit of speech a word can be divided into.  Once a student has mastered rhyming they are able to then manipulate words down to the phoneme. In this description it appears that phonics mastery leads to phonemic awareness.  What do you think?

Given that rhyming is indicative of readiness for phonemic awareness she spends a section of the chapter on stages of rhyming.  There's a chart and an example of a folder in the book to be used to see where your students are in regards to rhyming.

Heidi has made up a sheet to be used in a binder and it's on her blog here:  Stages of Rhyming

She points out that students need to learn about these:

• phonological awareness, including listening, words and sentences, awareness of syllable, and playing with onset and rime (word families).
• concepts about print (read left to right; top to bottom, spaces between words, print has a message)
• letter names, shapes, sounds, and formation

Phonemic awareness is about the sounds. Phonemic awareness activities may include:

• sound matching
• sound isolation (initial, then final, then medial sounds)
• sound blending
• sound segmenting
• sound addition, deletion, substitution

Phonemic awareness activities should be playful and engaging not drills.  They should begin only with sounds with no letters. Overtime, print can be added to phonemic awareness activities.

Key point in this chapter to me is that ***Phonemic Awareness is the most potent predictor of success in learning to read (Stanovich 1986, 1994).  That's crucial to understand. So, if you have struggling readers in second grade, clearly, it's important to understand where they may be gaps in phonological and/or phonemic awareness. 

There's a 2 page spread on possible lesson topics and activities so you definitely will want to check those out (pages 94-95).  Possible phonological focuses include: rhyming, alliteration, sentence segmenting, syllable blending and segmenting. Possible phonemic awareness focuses could include:  onset-rime segmenting and blending, sound matching, counting phonemes in a word, blending phonemes to make a word, isolating beginning phoneme in a word, isolating the final phoneme in a word, isolating the medial phoneme in a word, segmenting phonemes in a word, and substituting one phoneme for another.

Much of your phonics and phonemic instruction can take place in whole group about 20 minutes 3 to 4 times a week.  Those that struggle with an aspect could benefit from small group help.  Small group is probably more helpful than one-on-one. She has a folder for the stages of Phonological Awareness. I made one  up that you could either put side by side in a binder or print out and glue in a folder. Click the picture. It actually has some clipart on it but I added it after the screen shot.  

She makes the point to state not to move on to phonemic awareness until children understand how to rhyme, segment sentences into words, and clap their names by syllables, and are beginning to be able to separate onsets from rimes. (Diller,  p. 96)  

Phonic and Phonemic instruction should be explicit. Therefore, like her other chapters, she gives you a chart about Prompts for Phonemic Awareness. Yes, I typed it up for you!

Click the preview!

The idea is to build "your students' sound base, one block at at time -- from words, to syllables, to onset and rime, to individual phonemes." (p. 112).

Another great chapter with many lesson plans for both phonological awarenes and phonemic awareness.  I have typed up the lesson plans. They are here but no preview!  

Phonological Awareness Lesson Plan     Phonemic Awareness Lesson Plan

I hope you have enjoyed the information in this post and the shares.  Still loving the book and all the great information!

I was surfing pinterest and came upon this FREEBIE! She has an assessment for all of the phonological awareness areas. If you don't have something you already use in your school/district this would be GREAT!! And did you read it's free???

Assessment FREEBIE

Thanks,

Dina

Chapter 5 Fluency

Hello All,

I'm a little behind on posting about the Summer Book Study (#SBS14) with Heidi over at Mrs. Samuelson's Swamp Frogs.  In case you are just happening upon this then we are reading Debbie Diller's Making the Most of Small Groups: Differentiation for All.  It's a great book and if you are looking for a way to step up your Reading Small Groups it's a must read.Chapter 5 is all about Fluency.
There's a lot of great information in the book. Let's look at some highlights.

First, it's important to understand that "Fluency includes decoding accurately, reading rate, expression, intonation, phrasing, pacing and pausing."  So often we think about fluency as only the reading rate. But it is so much more than that.  Reading rate is only one small part of this.

How do you know when a child is reading fluently? Well for a few measures they need to be able to read text at 95% accuracy or above.  They must also be able to read with automaticity. Read with little effort to decode (which goes hand in hand with the reading accurately).  This can be measured by wpm. By the end of second grade students should be reading 90 words per minute. Hopefully they will be coming in around 50/60 words from 1st grade and then you have the school year to get up to 90.  You could think about it like 10 words per minute per quarter. Obviously, they will need to be practicing A LOT to increase this way. Lastly, students need do be reading with expression. You can check out this by listening to students read orally.  You can use a rubric for this. Debbie had one in her book. Yes, I typed it up and have it for your here to use if you would like.  Fluency Score Rubric  Click the link and you'll get it in a google doc. The graphic is from www.mycutegraphics.com  (Be sure to support her. She is so kind to let teachers use free clipart because she appreciates teachers!!)

Some other important quotes from this chapter --
"Fluency is a bridge between phonics and comprehension."  This is important because if they cannot decode they use up too much brainpower trying to read the word that they have no energy left for comprehension. Which as we know is the goal of reading.  Remember no comprehension = no reading. That's also why fluency is so important. When children read fluently, they will comprehend! Practice is imperative to fluency and then to comprehension!

Given all of these facets of fluency which leads to our goal of reading -- comprehension what do you focus on?  Here are her suggestions for Focus for Lessons.

• Decoding words effortlessly and automatically
• High-frequency word work
• Reading punctuation
• Reading in phrases
• Reading with intonation
• Reading dialogue
• Regulating the speed of reading

Here are some factors for choosing materials for fluency work:

• Choose books at students' easy reading level -- at least 95% accuracy.
• Larger print appears easier to read than small print and less intimidating for struggling readers
• find books on topics that interest the students
• familiar stories with repetitive phrases
• gradually reduce support and present text that is a little more challenging as you progress

As is the format for the other chapters, there are sample lessons for High Frequency Words, Phrasing, Reading Dialogue,  and Adjusting Rate. 

Here is a blank lesson plan  Small Group Fluency Lesson Plan

I love also how she has information to help you link these small group lessons to Whole Group and Work Stations.

She had another chart about Prompts to say based on what the child is having trouble with.  So, I want this handy for my groups and so I have typed up here to share with you.  Prompts for Fluency

One thing that came to mind about teaching to read the punctuation was a video I saw, I think at Responsive Classroom training. The teacher had taught them to make a signal/sound for each type of punctuation mark to emphasize what is done when reading based on the punctuation type.  I googled and couldn't find anything about it so it must be just this teachers doing.  I did find this article online that said to use percussion for the punctuation during shared reading.  This is the same idea. The other was just more active and interesting.  I will look for the video and see if I can find it.  Here's a link to the article with some other ideas  you might find interesting as well.  Percussion for punctuation

Well, here's my shares. I will get to Chapter 6 later this week.  I think I'm behind a week now....but don't worry I'll catch up.  I hope you are liking our Book Study. It's a great book. I highly recommend you purchasing it. There are many sample lesson plans you could use to get started and many resources from the book.  Please leave comments. I like hearing your comments and if you have any questions or comments about the shares please let me know.

Have a great weekend,

Dina

#SBS14 Chapters 3 and 4

Hello All,

Sorry I am a little behind on posting about the Book Study on the Book, Making the Most of Small Group Instruction: Differentiation for All by Debbie Diller. I'm in Illinois as my Mom was supposed to have surgery. They just postponed it until next Monday, July 7, 2014.

So, let's get started. I have to say that I am really enjoying this book. Chapter 3 was about Grouping. This is very important.  Key points about forming your small groups:

• Use anecdotal notes to help create groups
• Use formal and informal assessments combined with anecdotal notes and observation 
• Listen to students read in formal and informal settings

I am really interested in what we will use for testing and progress monitoring next year with the new Journeys reading series.  I really want to track this so I know how my students are progressing and try to find ways to fill in any gaps they may have.

Guidelines for Managing Formal Testing

• Wait a few weeks if possible
• Do the "easy" testing first -- starts with students you think will do well may make it go a little faster
• Engage students in fun activities that require little supervision while you test the other students
• Write about or draw their favorite things to do, their family, etc.
• Let them play with play dough on individual mats -- spell their names and other words.
• Give them stencils or patterns to make their own creation
• Give them a "back to school" packet with easys fun-to-do review sheets
• Read books independently or with a buddy (use guest readers such a parents or grandparents)

The next section was Managing Anecdotal notes. There are so many options here. I am going to try the notecards suggestion. I bought colored 4 x 6 notecards. I am going to put them out in front of each student like she suggestions. Then as I listen to each student read I will be able to jot down quick notes and they will be handy right there.  I bought a file box to keep them in my small group teaching area.

I really like her idea for a "flexible flexible groups folder" I really plan to use that with the sticky notes and color coded of course so they are easy to move around and switch groups easily, hence the flexible flexible connotation. 

There's so much important information in this chapter.  She also talks about how many groups and how long you should meet with each group.  The suggestion is 2 groups a day (3 if you can work it in). Each group need only be about 20 minutes. If you're doing kindergarten groups they could be only 15 minutes. She suggests you meet with your students who struggle most every day. Every day may actually be only 4 days as typically Fridays are for assessment. Then you need to gage how many days you need to meet with the other groups.  To keep track of lessons she suggests using a small-group lesson-planning notebook which was described in Chapter 2. I definitely suggest this and plan to do this as well.

Chapter 4 -- Comprehension

Another Chapter with some great information. Comprehension is understanding. As we all know sometimes kids can decode better than some but they lack understanding. They don't comprehend. But what is reading without comprehension? So, it is imperative that we help our students learn skills and strategies that will help them comprehend because really without comprehension you have no purpose for reading. Everyone needs to meet in small groups to learn comprehension. If they are comprehending they need to learn how to go deeper.

What's great about this Chapter is all the sample lessons for many areas of comprehension. She gives great tips about choosing materials. If you can choose books based on student's interests and backgrounds it helps comprehension.  Which would you rather read a book about something you're interested in or a manual for how to operate a toaster? She suggests using both fiction and nonfiction.

There are lessons about:

• Text Structure
• Monitoring for Comprehension
• Schema/Characters We Know
• Usisng Graphic Organizers
• Asking Questions
• Visualizing

One thing that seems really helpful is this chart she has for Prompts for Comprehension. If a student gets stuck you could have a response to help them think rather than giving answers. I liked this chart and wanted to have it readily available so I made one to have handy at my table and when I am lesson planning.

 

Okay, I give, I can't get that picture to link for me so here's the link to get this document.

Comprehension Prompts

I also liked the lesson plan but because it has no disk with it you would have to hand-write them. I try to avoid that at all costs.  So, I typed it up.  All rights go to Debbie Diller. Please do not remove that from the lesson plan.

Here is a link to the typed up lesson plan:

Small Group Lesson Plan

I also liked the section on questions for deeper understanding.  She mentions thick and thin questions. I have used this before.  Here's a link to Pinterest on this very subject!

Thick and Thin Questions

I'm going to do more research. Maybe I'll have a freebie for you on this at some point.

I have been so wordy and I am not even sure I did these chapters justice. I am excited to put all of these things into practice this new school year.  

What are things you doing to help your students comprehend? What do you do to manage small groups and forming them?  How do you keep records?  I would love to hear your comments.

Please share!

Thanks,

Dina

Sadness....extra pages have to be static information.

Hello All,

I haven't used blogger in a few years as an "author" on a regular basis so I am trying to get reaquainted. I was saddened to find out that extra pages you add (which appear as tabs at the top of the blog) cannot be basically like a separate blog. Instead, they must be static information that you just want to appear there.

But, I did find out that I can link it to a webpage. So, I may for my "Just for Parents" section start a weebly. I really wanted to keep this simple. The more basic I make it the more likely I am to keep this going and keep it up. So, I will have to think about this a little more. So, keep watching for details and I will check into some choices like a weebly which I know are rather easy to use. I do want ot have a resource page for parents. Using a weebly would also be a place to add more resources for teachers as well. Stay tuned.....changes may be coming soon.

Thanks for visiting my blog and reading my "moments". Soon we'll be posting about Chapters 3 and 4 for the Summer Book Study so check back soon! I have a couple of shares from Chapter 4 you might be interested.  Some day I might actually make some "goodies" like you see on TPT. Just have to find some time or something I need to make it worthwhile! All about the time management you know!

Have a great Sunday!
Dina

Chapters 1 and 2 - Making the Most of Small Groups~ Differentiation for All

Hello All,

As I previously posted. I'm doing a Summer Book Study on the book Making the Most of Small Groups~ Differentiation for All by Debbie Diller. The Book Study is being coordinated by Mrs. Sameulson's Swamp Frogs. Click the name to go to her blog.  We're discussing the first two chapters.  Here's my take on the first two chapters.  I hope you can find something useful.

I am really enjoying this book. I look forward to hearing what others have to say as well. I have made a mock schedule after reading Chapter 1. Last year I only taught Math and Science and I switched classes with a team teacher who taught the RLA/SS. This year I will be teaching all subjects. I am not exactly sure about times as we are changing our start time so I am not exactly sure what time our lunch and support will be. I guessed. So, it might have to be adjusted. I do know however how much time they take up. I am excited with this schedule as I found time for individual conferences for reading as well as a separate writing time. I am attaching my mocked up schedule in case you want to see it.

I also made an instructional planning sheet to help me make sure I am being proactive in all parts of my ELA time. This is to just get me organized and stay on track. It is not a lesson planning sheet.

So, I guess you will say that these are my "takes" from Chapter 1. I need to make sure i have time to "get everything" in and I know myself I need to be organized and stay on track and it is my hope that the planning sheet will help me do that.

Chapter 2 really helped me to think through what I need to do to get organized. I have made a list of tings I need to do/get based on information in Chapter 2.

I I need a 4 drawer bin for the materials for each group near my teaching table.

I am going to color code my groups just so it's visual for me and my students.

I need to make or look for a sign that indicates or actually says "DO NOT DISTURB" as a reminder to students that we are not to interrupt the small group time.

I am going to set up a Small Group Binder to keep running records and current anecdotal records for each student in the group folder. I also may have a section for each student. We'll see how that goes. I am going to try the 4x6 notecards first and if that doesn't work I might try notebook pages....that's a trial and error kind of thing for me.

I need to stock up on post it notes and do an interactive modeling lesson on how to use the post-it notes during reading to help them learn how to "think" while they are reading (there is more on this in Chapter 4).

I need separate small group lesson plans from the weekly lesson plans. I need a reflection section on my lesson plans to keep notes.

Make sure my teaching table is where I can see the whole room.

Then of course I have a whole list of supplies I need: magnetic white boards and lowercase magnetic letters.

I really have enjoyed the book so far. I hope I haven't shared too much.

Thanks for reading!

Dina

Here's my two add-ons that I created you might find useful.

Instructional Planning Sheet

2nd Grade Schedule

Blogging Adventures in 2nd grade!

Hello All,

There are many great blogs on the web so why am I starting one? Well, I really like the connectedness amongst the bloggers. I like the sharing with teachers, parents and students. I just might have a thing or two of interest to someone at sometime. So, today I embark on this blogging adventure. I hope it will be active and I can keep up with it.

This summer, I am attending a few professional developments. Next week I am attending two on science. One is about our district's new curriculum for Science and the other is presented by Lakeshore Learning. You get to keep the materials you use in the workshop and I am very excited to attend that one for sure.

In July, I am attending two on Math; one on numeration and the other on fluency. I am also attending a workshop on our new Reading Series, Journeys 2014 that we are adopting this year in our District. I have already begun looking for supplemental teacher materials and trying to plan some. I have to wait for the new curriculum maps for Reading to come out. I hope they are out soon so I can begin looking at them. Yes, I am one of those teachers. It's time to go get some ink for the computer and more lamination film and get those good pair of scissors out. I also want to get some centers ready for reading on the trifolds. My colleagues used those this year and they looked like they worked well and kept things organized.

I am also doing this book study with Heidi at http://swampfrogfirstgraders.blogspot.com/ on Debbie Diller's book, Making the Most of Small Groups. I got my book this week and have already started reading it. I am looking forward to discussing this with the others in the book club. If you're intested in joining go to the link and scroll down a couple posts and you'll find the information.  I plan to post about my readings and the book study on here so stay tuned.

Click the book cover or the photo below to take you to Heidi's blog to learn more about the book study. In addition to the book study she has some great information for 1st and 2nd grade teachers.

I might also dabble in making some items to use in my class. For now I am just going to give them away on my blog. If I ever feel they are susbtantial then I might open a TPT store. We'll see. Join me here for the adventures of My Second Grade Smarties and you'll find out.

Have a great day!

Dina