Phonics and Reading in K-2

February 27, 2014 Ms. LaBella & Ms. DiLiberti

Critical Components of Reading

Word recognition DECODING = figuring out new words 1. ACCURACY Language analysis of syllabic, phonological and morphological segments in words knowledge of letter names & sounds knowledge of syllable types [spelling patterns] 2. SPEED = fluency

*** MEMORY for words that dont follow rules (red words, sight words, high frequency words)

Critical Components of Reading

Oral language comprehension
VOCABULARY GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE TEXT STRUCTURE
Narrative Expository Persuasive Poetic

Word Recognition
-the ability to read words. -2 major categories of written words: regular spelling patterns (these are called syllable type patterns) irregular (they do not follow a spelling pattern and therefore must be memorized, such as THE, WAS and HAVE). * 85% of the words in English are regular and 15% are irregular*

What is decoding?
It requires students to understand that spoken words are made up of syllables, phonemes (individual speech sounds) and morphemes (units of meaning like ing, -ed, plural s, un-, -ful, re-, and many more.

What is decoding?
It also requires that they know the letter sounds that correspond to each of the letters of the English alphabet (and this is difficult because the vowels can make more than one sound).

What is decoding?
It also requires that they know the spelling patterns (which are known as syllable type patterns) of our written language, because the vowel sound changes depending on the letters around it.

What is decoding?
The thing about memorizing words is that you cant use this technique for words you have never seen before. Struggling readers tend to guess at words from the first letters, their shape or from pictures in the text, and they do this more than good readers do because they are not good at decoding new words. This is the characteristic that 99% of the time distinguishes good readers from struggling readers, right into adulthood.

So what can we do to explicitly teach writing?

Remember struggling readers tend to guess at words from the first letters, their shape or from pictures in the text, (as opposed to analyzing the sounds) and they do this more than good readers do because they are not good at decoding new words.

So what can we do to explicitly teach writing?

-letter recognition -letter sound knowledge (consonants) -letter sound knowledge (short vowels, open vowels) -understanding of syllables -understand there is a vowel in each syllable* -tapping out sounds, clapping out syllables*
*very important for writing!

As adults, reading comes automatically

Try these nonsense words out!

Let s learn how to read!

Let s Learn to READ!

We read words Words are made of letters!

Consonants are words that we see a lot. Let s practice our consonants!

circle soft c

giraffe soft g

Vowels are very important letters.

The vowels are

The vowels are

The vowels are

The vowels are

The vowels are

The vowels are

The vowels are

Let s practice our vowels!

Want to know a secret?

Want to know a secret? there is a vowel in every syllable!

That s a big word! A syllable is a chunk of sound

All words have at least one syllable.

Remember the secret

Every syllable has a vowel!

Need for Speed!

Fluency is the ability to read things quickly. Learners also have to figure out words QUICKLY. If they read too slowly, they will never be able to comprehend, or understand, what they are reading. Try reading a paragraph out loud very very slowly and you will also have difficulty with comprehension!

Word Meaning
Let s say a student can in fact read the written words successfully. THEN he needs to have the meaning of those words stored in his head, from earlier oral language learning, so that he will comprehend the meaning of the text he is reading. If you read: The gromp telved the matlent! you would not be able to comprehend this sentence even though you could figure out how to read each word, because you would not have the meanings of these words stored in your head (since I made up the words). Therefore, decoding the words is not enough; kids also need to know what the words mean.

Grammatical Structure
Learners need to understand the grammatical structure of each sentence in the text. For example, they need to know what the plural s morpheme means, or the past tense ed morpheme, or how to comprehend basic word order (syntax), for example, understanding that THE BOY HIT THE GIRL has a different meaning from THE GIRL HIT THE BOY.

Grammatical Structure
Furthermore, kids need to comprehend the structure of the text, which is different if it is a narrative text (events with problems and solutions) compared to an expository text (topic sentence with supporting details and conclusions) compared to persuasive text or poetry.

How can we help at home?

Have your child read to you every day! -phonetic readers and poems are especially good for struggling readers -ask your childs teacher if you dont have access to independent level books -if your child struggles, remind them to look at the letters; what sound does that make? Does that make sense?

Echo Reading
-you read one sentence or paragraph (length can vary) at a time while your child follows along in the text with their finger. Once you pause, your child echoes back the same sentence or paragraph, following along with their finger so that you can be sure they are actually reading and not simply copying you. The guided practice and support of the echo reading structure instills confidence in students aiming to develop greater reading proficiencies.

-some good library books to choose are Jonathan Londons Froggy Series, and the Mercer Mayer Little Critter series. They use controlled syllable types so that your child can decode these books.

-having your child read a short, decodable poem aloud will help build fluency and automaticity

-help your child memorize sight words -play Concentration, have spelling bees -ask your childs teacher for a comprehensive list of sight words

Save the Date

Phonics and Writing in K-2 March 27, 2014