Phrased Reading & Helpful Home Connections

Being a parent of a Kindergarten, I am so pleased when power points, websites, and apps are sent home.  Tonight I searched for some helpful sites to educate you on fluency and provide some meaningful practice for your child or student.  Ironically, the first website I came across was "Mrs. Warner's 4th grade class".  If you read my profile, I spent 7 years teaching fourth grade.  No, this is not my website but it's worth visiting.  I believe that my experience in fourth grade fueled my desire to go back to school to focus on literacy development.

http://mrswarnerarlington.weebly.com/fluency-practice.html

http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/18979_McEwan_Fluency_4_8_Pgs_74_75.pdf?WT.svl=webdesc

What research says...Fluency is only worth teaching if it fosters comprehension...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBWgWlrrDPE

Practice phrases at home by listening and echoing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45GXhP8MB_M



This is what scooping phrases looks like...At the end of each scoop, pause.

Fluency Part 1

"Read like you talk"

"Read smoothly"

What does this mean to a 7 year old? Don't read like a robot, but we still want you to use your strategies to figure out the words, stop and think, and be able to comprehend what you are reading.

Wow...overwhelming, especially for a struggling reader.  I am dedicating my October-November posts to fluency.  I will never put comprehension on the back burner, because it is the most important part of the reading process.  I will discuss fluency hand in hand with comprehension,  just as I would teach it in the classroom.

What is Fluency?

The ability to read smoothly and automatically, with expression and attention to punctuation.

What is Pace?

The speed or rate in which you read

What is Phrasing?

Chunking (scooping) the owrds together into meaninful phrases

What is intonation?

Expression, reading with feeling in your voice

What does punctuation have to do with fluency?

stopping at periods..taking breaths at commas,,, making your voice go up for question marks??? showing excitement for exclamation points!!! using "Quotation marks" to change voice for characters

Below is an engaging website to work with your 2nd-5th grade child or student.

http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/hultenius/fluency.cfm

Remember...the best practice for a child is hearing someone else read to them with fluency.

It's July and your child will be entering Kindergarten in September!!!

Happy Summer! Happy Birthday to America! I feel blessed to be an educator in our country that brave men and women defend every day. 

As the second week of July approaches, thoughts of letter sounds and sight words enter my mind and the mind of my 5 year old daughter.  Here are some tips to all those parents, teachers, and families that want to help prepare their kindergartner the best they can for September.

 

1. Refer to your child or student as a reader.  This is imperative in developing confidence and a sense of ownership of the actions they take turning pages, looking at pictures, and making up stories.

 

2. Talk about the cover and title of the book.  Point out that the title page is after the cover. 

 

3. Read the author's and illustrator's name.  Talk about the difference between their roles.

 

4. As you read to them, use expression and excitement.  Verbalize your thinking such as..."Wow look at that boy's sad face! He must be feeling disappointed because his ice cream cone fell on the ground".  

 

5. Pair your think aloud with a question to elicit confersation.  "What do you think he's going to do now? What would you do?"

 

6. Just read without interrupting.  Enjoy the story.  Not every story needs to be dissected.

 

7.  Reading aloud is the single most important thing you can do for your child to develop literacy.  Pair this with meaningful conversations that challenge your child or student to make connections, ask questions, and read between the lines (make inferences).

 

Stay tuned for my next blog about sight words and level A books!

 

Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

 

jwarner@somervilleschools.org 

Decoding, Encoding, Comprehending….

Decoding, Encoding, Reading Fluently, and Comprehending Text

Decoding is the ability to read a word with accuracy.
 Encoding is spelling and writing a text with accuracy.
 Reading Fluently is the ability to read a text smoothly with phrasing and intonation.  Fluency aids in comprehension but does not ensure comprehension.
 Comprehending a text refers to the understanding of a text, and the ability to express ones understanding using multiple reading strategies.
 Important points to consider:
·      A student may be able to decode and read with fluency but have limited comprehension.  This child needs purely comprehension instruction using explicit reading instruction focusing on reading strategies such as: main idea and details, sequence of events, cause and effect, inferring, drawing conclusions, summarizing, synthesizing, and evaluating.  It is not productive for a child to be pushed to read more challenging texts, just because they can say words correctly.  If anything, the child should start at a lower level to build the basics of comprehension.

·      A poor decoder and encoder who struggle with fluency may have strong comprehension.  In this case a systematic approach to teaching phonics and fluency is the approach to take.

Understanding what is read is by far the most important goal of reading; therefore discussing texts with your student or child is imperative.  Students who struggle with decoding and fluency need to take part in the pleasure of reading.  In order for them to feel ownership over the process, they need to develop a love of reading.  At home, reading needs to be associated with a relaxing, pleasurable time.  

My favorite quote this week…

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents” –Emilie Buchwald
  

Recommended Website
http://www.readingrockets.org/teaching

Books for Boys

This week's blog is for all the moms out their with sons who are reluctant readers.

We are taught from a very young age that the more you practice, the better you will get.  So what happens when your son, finds no enjoyment or engagement in the books he's told he has to read?

I am imagining this...you open your son's backpack and find a book that he needs to read for twenty minutes for his reading log.  When you mention that he needs to read, you hear a grunt.
      A huge power struggle begins that results in frustrated parents and children.
      There are negative thoughts and feelings being associated with books.
      Valuable reading time is being lost.

What do you do as a parent?

First, talk to you child about why he doesn't want to read the book. It may be a topic he actually does enjoy but it's too difficult.  This provides the perfect opportunity for you to read aloud to him and have an in depth conversation about the characters, plot, genre, and reasons why the author might have written the book.

If you know your child can read the words and understand the topic, but is just not into it, find out if this was a choice book or a required text.  At many points in our life, we do need read required texts; however it needs to be paired with something enjoyable. 

Why?

Your son needs to have a positive experience with a book; that's the only way he will want to pick it up again and.... the practice begins.

How do you hook your child on the right book? Recommendations from teachers and fellow parents are great, but we are not the ones who will have to read the book.  To make this a more meaningful experience, engage your son in the process. Bring him to Barnes and Noble, the Library, or any other bookstore around.  Look through all different kinds of books, see what he gravitates towards.

If he chooses a book too hard, don't discourage the choice.  You can read the book to him and this will build his receptive vocabulary, so when he encounters these words, he will have an easier time decoding and understanding them.

I have referenced the following website many times in the past, but I keep coming back to it whenever a parent inquires..."How do I get my son to love reading?"

Check it out, and please comment below about your own experiences.

http://www.guysread.com/books/ 
 
     

Back to Blogging in 2014

Happy 2014!

Some statistics to ponder….
70-80% of prison inmates are school dropouts
60% of inmates are illiterate to semiliterate
63% of inmates are repeat offenders
(The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease)


Reading is the building block to every subject a student encounters in school.  Why do students drop out? Several reasons of course; however statistics don't lie….

We need to change the social climate of America by changing the graduation rate.  Where does it start? Before a child enters the doors of a school building.

Unfortunately, not every child has the opportunity to hear books read aloud snuggled up to a loved one.  Not every child is actively participating in family discussions, asking in depth questions about why things work the way they work. Not every child is asked his or her opinion about a topic then asked to support it with reasons and examples. LOL…
Fortunately, some children have this opportunity at home.
Fortunately, teachers are life time learners and seek best practices in literacy to meet every child's learning style.

If you are a parent reading this, just remember this…children strive to be like their parents (whether they admit it or not), so what better role model is there than fostering the love of learning through reading.  It doesn't matter if your child is 2 or 12, find the time to read together and talk together.  Set high expectations for your child in literacy. Use vocabulary words that you know they haven't heard of…Read books that are too hard for them to read themselves, but ask them questions.  Focus on the why and the how questions.  You want  your child to start a discussion and not answer in one word.  You are training your child to think critically for him or herself in a world that is competitive.

If you are a teacher reading this, keep learning, keep loving, keep believing that what we do in the classroom is all worth it. Despite all the pressures of testing, data, evaluations etc… we are in this profession for a reason.  On a bad day or at a bad moment, dig deep and remember how you could change a student's life forever.

Some helpful websites for teachers and parents are below….
http://www.candohelperpage.com
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/things-parents-can-build-up-childs-comprehension-skills-5054.html