Literacy Links

September, 2006

Volume 3, Number 1

Monthly E-Newsletter of Maine Reading First

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Upcoming

Events

September 16~

Reading Rumpus, a family day with several Maine authors and illustrators including Kevin Hawkes, John and Ann Hassett, Anne Sibley O'Brien, Ethel Pockocki, Noah Z. Jones, Lesis Sochor, Cynthia Lord, and Lynn Plourde, Gardiner, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

September 28-29~

New England Reading Association (NERA) Annual Conference, Lowell, MA (More information about this conference is available on the website www.nereading.org)

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"Shared reading is an important missing piece in many reading programs, especially in grade 2 and above.  I find that when teachers shift their attention to give more time to shared reading, guided practice is more meaningful and efficient, and teachers don't have to work so hard in small reading groups.  Also, and this is very important, teaching reading becomes much more enjoyable."  

Regie Routman, 2003

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"A house without books is like a room without windows."  

Horace Mann

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"The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind."  

Elizabeth Hardwick

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Spotlight on.

Shared Reading  

Shared reading is a powerful component within a comprehensive literacy framework where teachers and students share and read a text together.  Shared reading is based on the research of Don Holdaway from the late 1970s and its development was meant to replicate the experience of a young child sitting in an adult's lap and listening to or reading along while the adult reads a story.  It is based on the apprenticeship model where the teacher provides higher levels of support at the beginning until the students become familiar with the text and their participation increases.  The level of teacher support fluctuates in a shared reading lesson so that as teachers observe students contributing more, the amount of their support diminishes. 

It is essential that the text used in a shared reading lesson has print large enough for students to see.  Texts can be projected on an overhead projector in order to make them visible for all students.  The following is a list of possible texts for shared reading:

Shared reading lessons are valuable because there are a number of instructional purposes which can be addressed based on the grade level and needs of the students.  It is important to recognize the power of shared reading above Kindergarten and Grade 1.  When using shared reading in Grade 2 or higher, the teaching points can be adapted to meet the needs of these older students.  The following is a list of some of the teaching points which can be a focus for shared reading:

Dominie Press, Inc. published Shared Reading: Reading with Children by Stanley Swartz, Rebecca Shook, and Adria Klein in 2002.  This resource includes information about shared reading and various texts which can be used in shared reading lessons.

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Description of Instructional Idea.

Munching on Sounds

This fun (and edible) activity focuses on phonemic awareness.  The design of this activity is flexible to allow a focus on either phoneme identification or phoneme segmentation and blending.  The first step for implementing this activity with either focus is to select the target words to be used and determine whether picture cards will be used to accompany these words.  The number of phonemes in the target words determines the number of cups each student will need.  It is essential to establish which cup will be used to represent beginning phonemes, middle phonemes, and ending phonemes.  (The directions below assume target words with three phonemes are being used.)

Phoneme Identification~Students arrange three cups in a row and then place a small edible treat (cheese cracker, Cheerios, pretzel, etc.) into each cup.  Given the target word, students are asked to identify where in the word a specific sound is located.  They then eat the treat from the appropriate cup corresponding to the location of that sound.  Example: If the target word is mop and the identified sound is /p/, students locate the third (final sound) cup and eat the treat from this cup.

Phoneme Segmenting and Blending~Students are given three cups which they arrange in a row and a separate pile of edible treats.  As they segment the phonemes within the target word, students drop one treat into each of the three cups.  Example: If the target word is bed, students would place a treat in the first (beginning sound) cup as they articulate the /b/ sound, then place a treat in the second (middle sound) cup as they articulate the short /e/ sound, and lastly, they would place a treat in the third (final sound) cup as they articulate the /d/ sound.  As with all phoneme segmentation activities, it is critical for students to blend the phonemes in the target word after segmenting so students recognize the word as a whole unit.

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Summary of Professional Literacy Text.

QAR Now:

A Powerful and Practical Framework that Develops Comprehension and Higher-Level Thinking in All Students

Question Answer Relationships (QAR) were developed in the late 1970s by Taffy Raphael and details about this technique had only been described in journal articles until now.  Taffy Raphael has collaborated with her colleagues Kathy Highfield and Kathryn Au to create a practical resource which explains in great detail what Question Answer Relationships are, how to teach QAR, and how this technique promotes comprehension.  QAR Now answers many questions teachers have about Question Answer Relationships in a well-designed and easy-to-understand professional book.  The authors present a 6-step model for teaching QAR based on the gradual release of responsibility model.  The final chapter of QAR Now includes suggestions for using this text within a teacher discussion group.  QAR Now by Taffy Raphael, Kathy Highfield, and Kathryn Au was published in 2006 by Scholastic, Inc. under the "Theory and Practice" series.  The ISBN is 0439745837. 

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Children's Literature Title.

Winston the Book Wolf

Written by Marni McGee and illustrated by Ian Beck

Readers will be intrigued to explore this new book because a hole chewed out of the front cover with a wolf deviously peeking out will certainly catch their eyes.  Winston the Wolf loves words so much that he devours any words or books he can find.  His constant eating of words changes abruptly when Winston meets Rosie.  Rosie teaches Winston that, "You do not have to chew on a book to taste the wonderful words inside.  Words taste even better when you eat them with your eyes."  Readers will find out how Winston becomes Granny Winston, a beloved story reader at the library, even though in the beginning of the book, he was banished by the librarian for eating all of the books.  Readers will love to discover other characters within the illustrations of Winston the Book Wolf whom they will recognize from well-known fairy tales.  In fact, Rosie's red-hooded jacket and basket on her arm creates a striking resemblance to a tale where a little girl walks through the woods to visit her grandmother and unexpectedly meets a wolf.  Winston the Book Wolf was published in 2006 by Walker and Company and the ISBN is 0802795692.

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News from Maine Reading First.

Welcome back to a new school year!

Maine Reading First is excited to announce there are 7 new Maine Reading First Schools which will begin implementation of a three-year sub-grant this fall.  There are now 25 Reading First schools in the state of Maine. 

Maine Reading First is also pleased to share that the 3^rd Annual Maine Reading First Summer Institute was very successful!  Approximately 250 energetic educators from across the state attended this 2-day conference in Augusta in June and gathered many new ideas to implement in their classrooms this fall. 

Stay tuned to Literacy Links for details about the professional development offerings over the course of the 2006-2007 school year and during the summer of 2007!

Check it out.

Ø       In the February, 2006 edition of Literacy Links, the "Check it out." section described the K-1 Student Center Activities developed by The Florida Center for Reading Research.  It is exciting to announce that The Florida Center for Reading Research completed the Student Center Activities for Second and Third Grades this summer.  The activities for these grade levels are compiled in a similar fashion to those for Kindergarten and Grade 1 and are categorized by the 5 essential elements (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension).  A Teacher Resource Guide is also available and includes ideas about implementing and managing student centers within the classroom.  All of these materials are available for download at http://www.fcrr.org  Please be aware these downloadable files are extremely large.  

Newsletter Archives

There are several earlier editions of Literacy Links available at http://www.maine.gov/education/rf/homepage.htm

For additional information about any of the items in this newsletter or to sign up to receive this e-newsletter, please email janet.trembly@maine.gov

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http://www.maine.gov/education/rf/homepage.htm