|
_________________________
"Reading
is a fundamental skill upon which all formal education depends."
Louisa Moats, Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science, 1999
____________________
_____________________
Upcoming
Events
March 6~
Maine Reading First Informational Session on DIBELS, Portland
March 7~
Maine Reading First Informational Session on DIBELS, Bangor
March 10~
Maine Reading First Sub-Grant Applications Due
_____________________
_________________________
".I want to underscore that decoding is a necessary, but not
sufficient condition for becoming a competent reader. Teachers need to keep the other components
of reading, especially vocabulary and comprehension, present and active in
their classrooms."
Isabel Beck, Making Sense of
Phonics: The Hows and Whys, 2006
____________________
____________________
"I've traveled the world twice over, met the famous; saints and
sinners, poets and artists, kings and queens, old stars and hopeful
beginners, I've been where no one's been before, learned secrets from writers
and cooks, all with one library ticket to the wonderful world of books."
Unknown
|
Spotlight on.
Literacy Centers
Literacy centers are a component
of a comprehensive literacy framework.
They are used for students to independently practice and extend their
learning. Inclusion of literacy
centers within a comprehensive framework allows teachers to work with students
in guided reading groups or other small groups for direct instruction while
the other students are actively engaged in the literacy centers. Literacy centers include activities which
are purposeful, meaningful, appropriate, and can be completed by students in
pairs or small groups. The activities
reinforce and/or extend content, ideas, or skills which have been previously
taught by the teacher. Each center
activity should be taught and modeled prior to students working on it at a
center to ensure the students will be able to complete it successfully and
independently. Some examples of common
literacy centers include: poetry center, word study center, listening center,
or writing center. The activity
included at each of these centers will change frequently to best meet the
needs of the students. To be
effective, literacy centers require:
·
careful planning,
·
organization,
·
flexible grouping structures,
·
clear expectations, and
·
regular monitoring of students' progress.
A
management system also contributes to effective and accountable
implementation of literacy centers.
Work boards or center boards are typically created to illustrate which
center students should work at and the rotation they should follow through
the centers on a specified day.
On the Florida
Center for Reading
Research website (http://www.fcrr.org)
there is a "Teacher Resource Guide for Student Center Activities" available
for download which includes many more details about establishing literacy centers
in a classroom. (Refer to the 'Check
It Out' section of this newsletter for more information about the center
activities available on this website.)
________________________________________________________
Description of Instructional Idea.
Word Part
Puzzles
A word part puzzle is a versatile phonics instructional
activity where students explore how words can be broken down at various
levels-syllables, onset-rime, or letters (including single letters or blends
and digraphs). Begin by selecting a
focus as determined by the needs of the students. Select words which illustrate the selected
focus and write the words on index cards or cardstock. Cut the word cards into puzzles depending
on the focus. The table below includes
some examples:
|
Word
|
How to Create a Word Part Puzzle
|
|
rainbow
|
·
To focus on syllables, cut the word card into rain/bow
|
|
rain
|
·
To focus on onset-rime, cut the word card into r/ain
·
To focus on letters (including a vowel digraph), cut the word card
into r/ai/n
|
|
splash
|
·
To focus on onset-rime, cut the word card into spl/ash
·
To focus on blends and digraphs, cut the word card into spl/a/sh
·
To focus on letters (including a digraph), cut the word card into
s/p/l/a/sh
|
The students work to reassemble the word parts in the
correct order while blending the sounds of the word parts together to create
the whole word. Students can also be asked
to write the complete word and/or use it in a sentence.
This activity can be used regularly because it can be
adapted to focus on more complex levels as students' phonics knowledge and
skills grow.
______________________________________________________________
Summary of Professional Literacy Text.
Making Sense of
Phonics: The Hows and Whys
Isabel Beck, the author of the best-selling book, Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary
Instruction, has written a brand-new book on phonics. The chapters in this book mirror the
systematic progression of phonics skills.
After an introductory chapter on the alphabetic principle, the author
explores letter-sound instruction. The
next chapters focus on blending, word building, and multi-syllabic words,
respectively. Each chapter includes
theoretical underpinnings for each of the foci as well as ideas for
instruction. Throughout this book, the
author weaves her personal experiences of teaching young children to read
with the content.
Making Sense of Phonics: The Hows and Whys was published in 2006 by The
Guilford Press and the ISBN is 1593852576.
________________________________________________________
Children's Literature Title.
Carmine: A
Little More Red
written and illustrated by Melissa
Sweet
Melissa Sweet has created a delightful,
multi-layered retelling of the traditional tale of Little Red Riding
Hood. This book is packed with lots of
elements to entertain and engage readers.
Carmine loves her Granny who lives in the forest and taught Carmine how
to read by making alphabet soup.
Carmine also loves to paint. On
her latest trek to Granny's house, Carmine is entranced by red poppies in the
distance and tries to capture their beauty in her painting by finding the
perfect hue of red. In addition to
describing Carmine's not-so-smooth journey to her grandmother's house, the
author creates an alphabet book with each letter highlighting a new vocabulary
word pertaining to a portion of her journey.
Read to find out how Carmine likes to "dilly-dally" and how she
wonders if a mockingbird is an "omen" of what will happen on her trip to
Granny's. Carmine: A Little More
Red was published in 2005 by Houghton Mifflin and the ISBN is 0618387943.
______________________________________________________________
News from Maine
Reading First.
Maine Reading First will host two
informational sessions on the DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early
Literacy Skills) assessment tool in March (For more information on DIBELS,
refer to the December, 2005/January, 2006 edition of Literacy Links.) On March
6, a session will be held at Keeley the Katerer in Portland
from 9-12 p.m. and a session will be held at the Spectacular
Events Center
in Bangor on
March 7, also from 9-12 p.m. More information and the
registration form for these sessions are attached to this edition of Literacy Links.
Check it out.
The Florida Center
for Reading Research has created an invaluable resource for teachers in
Kindergarten and Grade 1. They have
compiled activities based on the five essential elements of reading (phonological
awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension) which can be used
in literacy centers. Activities are
sorted under categories within each essential element for ease in selection
based on the needs of students.
Activity plans detail the objectives, materials, and steps of
implementation. Most of the necessary
materials needed to implement the activity are also included which makes the
activities ready for use in the classroom.
All of these materials are available for download. Please be aware these downloadable files
are extremely large. The website
address is http://www.fcrr.org The Florida Center for Reading Research is
working this year to develop a similar set of center activities for grades 2
and 3.
Newsletter
Archives
There are several earlier
editions of Literacy Links
available at http://www.maine.gov/education/rf/homepage.htm
|
Edition
|
Spotlight Topic
|
|
March,
2005
|
Maine Reading First
|
|
April,
2005
|
Maine Reading First Course
|
|
May,
2005
|
Reading
Fluency
|
|
June,
2005
|
Vocabulary
|
|
September,
2005
|
Phonemic
Awareness
|
|
October,
2005
|
Phonics
|
|
November,
2005
|
Comprehension
|
|
December,
2005/January, 2006
|
DIBELS
|
|
