Different Literary Centers in a classroom: Library Center, Listening Center, Retelling Center, Science Center, Word Sort Center, Word Wall Center, Word Work Center, Writing Center. (p.184)
Language Experience Approach: is based on children’s language and experiences. teachers do shared writing; children dictate words and sentences about their experiences, and the teacher writes down what the children say; the text they develop becomes the reading material. Because the language comes from the children themselves and because the content is based on their experiences, they’re usually able to read the text easily. (children can learn to use revision strategies as they fine-tune the retelling of their story)
Reading Fluency: the ability to read quickly, accurately, and with expression, and to read fluently, students must recognize most words automatically and be able to identify unfamiliar words easily. Most students reach fluency during the second or third grade through a combination of explicit instruction and lots of authentic reading and writing. The goal here is that the student is able to focus on the meaning of the story, not decoding and spelling words out.
- Automaticity: fluent readers recognize familiar words automatically, without conscious thought, and they identify unfamiliar words almost as quickly.
- Speed: Fluent readers read at least 100 words per minute. Most children reach this level by the third grade. In addition, fluent readers vary their reading speed depending on their purpose and text complexity.
- Prosody: fluent readers read sentences expressively. with appropriate phrasing and intonation. Also known as the ability to read in expressive rhythmic and melodic patterns. (See p.187, Figure 6-1)
High Frequency words: are the most common words that readers use again and again. Teachers create word walls with a list of these common high-frequency words.
- At a kindergarten level: A, am, an, and, at, can, do, go, he, I, in, is, it, like, me, my, no, see, she, so, the, to, up, we.
- Teaching high-frequency words: See and hear the word. Say the word. Spell the word. Spell the word again. Write the word. Check the word. Say the word again.
Word Identification Strategies: used to decode unfamiliar words
- Phonic Analysis: students apply what they’ve learned about phoneme-grapheme correspondences and phonics rules to decode words using the phonic analysis strategy. Young children often try to decode a word by guessing at it based on the beginning sounds.
- Decoding by Analogy: Students use their knowledge of phonograms to deduce the pronunciation or spelling of an unfamiliar word. (such as claw from saw)
- Syllabic Analysis: Students break a multisyllabic word into syllables and then apply their knowledge of phonics to decode the word, syllable by syllable. (vol-ca-no)
- Morphemic analysis: Students use their knowledge of root words and affixes to read or write an unfamiliar word. (astro-naut)
Choral Reading: students work together and read poems and short stories aloud.
Guided Reading: working alongside the teacher to listen to or practice reading.
Assessing Reading Fluency: teachers informally monitor students reading fluency by listening to them read aloud during guided reading lessons, reading workshop, or other reading activities. They assess and collect data on students accuracy, speed, and prosody (expression/phrasing/volume/smoothness/pacing). Rubrics are a great way to keep note of each students fluency, along with it being easy to use from student to student. Running records are another great assessment tool as they can show how a student has progressed over a certain amount of time.
Interactive Writing is a useful procedure for examining young children’s handwriting skills and demonstrating how to form letters legibly.
Writers voice: students who use alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, and other literary devices to make their writing distinctive. It is the tone, or emotional feeling of a piece of writing. The distinct voices that reflect the writers individuality.
Dysfluent Students: some 10-15% of older students have difficulty recognizing words, ad their reading achievement is slowed. In some classrooms more than half of the students read 2 or more years below grade level, and they have difficulty decoding words, reading at an appropriate speed, or reading expressively.
- Dysfluent Readers: Those in the fourth grade and older who aren’t fluent readers are dysfluent. They read hesitantly and without expression. They often try to sound out phonetically irregular words and they complain that what they’re reading doesn’t make sense.
- Dysfluent Writers: Those in fourth grade and older who aren’t fluent writers are dysfluent. They write slowly and hesitantly. They can’t spell many high-frequency words, their handwriting is often difficult to decipher, and their writing lacks a voice or expressiveness.
Obstacles to Fluency:
- Lack of Automaticity: teachers will use explicit instruction to teach students to read and write high-frequency words. Each week they focus on 5 words and involve students in these activities to practice them.
- Students locate examples of the words in books they’re spelling
- students practice reading flash cards with the words to partners
- students play games, such as concentration, using the words.
- students write the words and sentences they compose on whiteboards
- student spell the words with letter cards or magnetic letters
- students write the words during interactive writing activities
2. Unfamiliarity with word-identification strategies: teachers include these components in their intervention programs to develop students’ ability to read and spell words.
- develop students’ background knowledge and introduce new vocabulary words before reading.
- teach word-identification strategies
- provide more time for reading and writing practice
3. Slow Reading Speed: the most important way that teachers intervene is by providing daily practice opportunities to develop students’ reading speed and stamina. Another way in which students practice reading a text aloud 3 to 5 times, striving to improve their reading speed and reduce errors with each reading.
4. Slow Writing Speed: the best way to improve a students writing speed is through lots of writing. Using Quickwriting, Reading logs, Simulated journals, Learning logs, and interactive writing are all great ways to assist.
5. Lack of Prosody: teachers emphasize prosody by modeling expressive reading every time they read aloud and using the think-aloud procedure to reflect on how they varied their expression, chunked words into phrases, modulated the loudness of their voice, or varied their pacing. The use of choral reading and readers theatre assist here.
6. Voiceless Writing: doing lots of reading and writing helps dysfluent writers develop their voices. As they read books and listen to the teacher read others aloud, students develop an awareness of the writers voice.
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