ROL Resource- Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing

Cunningham, Patricia M. (2005). Phonics They Use: Words for Reading and Writing. 4th Edition

Cunningham has put together a thought-provoking and  resourceful book regarding the instruction and implementation of phonetic practices in the classroom. She includes insightful background information about building a solid foundation for phonics students can use, and describes many effective strategies on how to incorporate them into your classroom. These strategies include reading and writing activities, print concepts, phonological and phonemic awareness, concrete words, letter names and sounds.

Cunningham then moves towards more advanced ideas in phonetics such as fluency, spelling patterns, big words/sight words. Finally she discusses coaching, reinforcement and assessment strategies for teachers to use to help assist students meet their potential while reading. The grade level focus for this book would be K-5, but the resources could be adjusted to meet the needs of many students at different grade levels. I would strongly suggest a quick peek at this book if you are interested in making the phonetic reading practices stronger in your classroom!

Intentionally building stronger relationships with my students and collegues

As I experience the daily accomplishments and struggles in my classroom, I realize that behind any successful classroom, there must be a large dosage of intention. Our schools and classrooms are filled with what I call "moving parts" and assets, most of the parts being student and colleague relationships. Recently, I've tried to push myself to make an effort to tend to all of those parts more effectively and constantly by intending to build stronger relationships and meet with students and colleagues on a regular basis to chat or discuss what is going on in their lives.

If I look back, even as far back as two or three weeks ago, some of the relationships in my classroom and those with colleagues had at times lost priority, and left me feeling like I was always in a rush to move to the next thing in my day. At times, I had noticed that I wasn't able to get to everyone during the day. Of course, each of my students is extremely important to me, and I am feverishly looking out for their needs on an individual basis, but I still felt like I was missing something with a few of them.

So, I intentionally refocused my viewpoint on a smaller, more focused level, and the classroom seems to have shrunk in size. I've started to meet with my students and have a meaningful talk (briefly) about what is important to them, and discuss their daily lives. This is something I've always done, but know it seems to be at a different level. I've started meeting them at random points of the day, morning, transition times, in the hallway going to lunch, or before recess. I've found that by taking the time and looking at each student as an asset of our classroom, my relationships with my students, both academically and socially, has become more engaging. This has also opened my eyes up to more insightful discussions with many of them. You can find out a lot in matter of minutes! I've created time to have them talk more with each other as well, to assist with their relationship building processes.

I am also continually working on this with my colleagues as well and continue to make an effort to have meaningful conversations that will build on the strong relationships we already have.

As I was reading in my devotional book this morning, this quote popped out at me and seemed to fit what I'm feeling:

        "What we "see" as teachers has more to do with inner vision than physical eyesight. Choose to see those things that bring happiness to your heart."

    " A happy hear makes the face cheerful." Proverbs 15:13

Why is teaching fluency in reading important to what I believe about teaching?

As a teacher, I try to ask myself this question, “Is what we are doing right now, helping us in some way?” If it isn't, we shouldn't be doing it. However, when I am teaching fluency in reading, I never have had to ask myself this question. Fluency is the key to understanding. In the staircase of comprehension, fluency is one of the most important steps.

The skill of learning to be a fluent reader, is like many other life activities that require practice, patience and hard work. Unfortunately, you can’t just wake up one morning and read! Like learning any language, at the beginning, all a language represents is a bunch of sounds put together in truly confusing ways. Once you learn the patterns, you start to see similarities with sounds, and it becomes easier. With practice, those words derive meanings and soon you are able to retrieve understanding. I believe the effort and practice put forth to understand a language, rolls over into other aspects of my students lives as well.

With many of life’s activities, practice and hard work are characteristics that have to be present in order to achieve great things. Becoming a fluent reader is very similar to many of these activities. When I see my students achieve the level of fluency that enables them to read for understanding, the options for their achievements are endless. Reading is understanding, and this leads to a lifetime of possibilities. My students know when they have worked hard for something and attained it. If students lack practice and effort with fluency, their struggles with understanding become apparent very quickly.

I believe that when students truly become accountable for their efforts with fluency, they see those efforts pay off in many other aspects of their lives, and they are able to transfer those skills in many other areas.

Backwards Design/ Curriculum Based Instruction

"Many nations lament the academic progress of their students year after year. Government officials institute "solutions" and throw money at the problems, but the solutions usually center around increased objectives to ensure topics are covered fully and more testing to make certain the curriculum is taught as defined. However the focus is on the content rather than on the development of the whole child - social, emotional, intellectual and physical - a terrible mistake.”

- H. Lynn Erickson

Erickson states that, "Quality teaching is supported by quality curriculums. The curriculum must be concept-based to meet the goal of transfer of knowledge, deep conceptual understanding, synergistic thinking, intercultural understanding, and personal intellectual engagement." In order to ensure a teacher is meeting this concept-based model, the BD (Backwards Design) planning strategy helps to visualize each piece of a theme or unit coming together and enables the teacher to  developing the unit continuously. 

With the BD/CBI model, the ability to lay out fundamental topical understandings, general understanding and specific understandings is very clear and intentional. These unit planners can help ensure that a concept based teaching plan will be developed and implemented.

One area that we are currently working on in our classrooms has been the development of lesson specific objectives that are stated before, during and after each lesson. These objectives are to be visible to all students at all times. As I learn more about the concept-based model of instruction and learning, I am noticing that this "objective" style of instruction fits under the definition two-dimensional instruction rather than three dimensional instruction. While I still feel that the objectives are beneficial and can give instructors and students a quick description of what students "should" learn while in class, most of our objectives only focus on topical understandings and factual knowledge, and I feel that I could give more options for students to answer questions that promote concepts or questions that students would even be able to debate or question to come up with their own conclusions.

These various types of questions during instruction are important because general questions based around facts do not promote transferable knowledge. Erickson states, "Knowledge transfers at the conceptual level.  Concepts, generalizations and principles are are applied across global contexts and situations." To me, this means identifying what concepts can be used in more than one lesson. Creating and overarching question, over multiple disciplines is a way to connect multiple themes, and I believe would allow students to apply their knowledge and understanding to many areas.

For example, if a student in my first grade classroom is learning about the idea of fractions, the concept of fractions or a whole being broken into parts, is identified during math class in regards to shapes and numbers. We could also apply the the fraction concept to social studies as we move towards cultural studies and identify various communities around the world. In science, we could apply the concept towards habitats as we define the needs of animals and the fraction of food available in a certain area, or as we discuss how important a fraction of the population is to a specific habitat. We could the move towards general and specific understandings that would promote the transfer-ability of key concepts.

Another aspect of the CBI and BD design models is how they both relate to student learning. The CBI model recognizes that intellectual and emotional engagement are essential to the motivation of learning ( Erickson p. 7). The BD model helps to identify what is worth covering and what isn't, by allowing the teacher to identify what the priorities are for enduring understanding (Wiggins & McTighe). This can keep what is interesting, engaging and motivating at the forefront of learning, to ensure students are an active part of the curriculum concepts.

Intention in the Classroom

In the classroom, the ideas of intention should be priority number one. From the concepts needed to be taught, to the physical and social needs of each student, intention can have profound impacts. I know that even with 20 students in my classroom, during a 6 hour school day, it can be hard to connect individually with each student on a daily basis for longer than a 5 minutes. As the day starts, and the wheels start turning, one thing moves to another, and at times the attention given to one task, can take away time from another. Intention can help me focus my day during instruction time, allows me to be more effective with my time management, and makes me conscious of the needs of my students.

    As a teacher,  my intention can assist when helping a student to achieve a goal, or master a skill, by focusing merely on what material will benefit them most. This helps by individualizing their learning plan. Intention also means making time for my students by creating a caring and responsive classroom learning environment.

My actions can help each student meet their individual social needs each day. A listening ear, a hug, a high-five, whole group sharing, and social activities are all things that I can do by intending to socially reach each one of my kids on a daily basis. While some of my students are able to build strong relationships at school, come from a supportive families and show positive social skills on a daily basis, other students need more attention in this area. I try to make an effort by meeting my students at the door each and every morning to greet them. I have a mental list of the students that I need to touch basis with, whether it be a quick chat about the prior evening or, to discuss things that have happened recently. It’s been amazing to see what emotion can be sitting behind the frown of a student. By processing through some of their situations with them, they understand that our respect for each other is mutual. If I can make my intentions known, and take time out of my day to specifically meet with each of my students, they will leave my classroom every day knowing that when they come back tomorrow, someone will be there who cares about them.

Intention

In the fall, I enrolled in my masters program through St. Mary's University. It has been a wonderful journey for me, not only as a teacher, but also as a person. One of the readings we completed was a chapter on intention. It's a word that has changed my perception on many things.The chapter was written by Paul Houston and Stephen Sokolow, out of the book The Spiritual Dimension of Leadership, Chapter 1, "The Principle of Intention."

To me, intention sits at the basis of all that we do. Whether it be in our private life, or our professional life, the implications of our intentions have drastic effects on ourselves and on everyone else we share this life with. Houston and Sokolow state that intention, when approached correctly, is the framework for the creation of the ultimate reality. I agree, that with hard work, external support, and a constant focus on your objective and main intention, that if you think it, it can be done. Acting on these intentions consists of speaking, writing and doing (Houston and Sokolow p.9) and when you have opened your intentions up for comments from those around you, you enlist support and constructive feedback. This is a process that I am currently working on in my daily life. I feel that at times, it’s difficult to open my ideas up to a peer or co-worker, because it can leave me vulnerable to criticism or judgement. I sometimes, feel that when I do open up an idea, the reaction isn’t what I was thinking it was going to be.  It leaves me thinking, “why wasn’t it received as I thought it would.” From this reading, I’ve realized that my job isn’t to be disheartened by my expectations, but instead to use these reactions, or criticisms to either continue on with my original intention, or adjust it. The goal is to align your intentions up with your actions. When you master this, you are constantly moving toward, and your intention is filled with an energy that feeds and transfers energy from you to  those around you. With a positive, energetic approach towards your support team and those around you, and with fluid discussions with your team of where you would like to go, the likelihood of you staying on track and meeting the outcome or goal will be much greater. 

For me, the biggest point I’ve come away with through this very thought-provoking reading is the idea that nothing is set in stone when it comes to your goals.  Your goals are always changing, and your intentions have great implications in regards to where you will end up.

• You need to be fluid and ready to make adjustments.
• Find your support group, or team and communicate your intentions with them. Goals are met with their assistance.
• Delegate jobs to those who can handle them, so you can focus on the important tasks you need to complete to stay focused on the goal.
• Treat others as you would like to be treated (the Golden Rule).
• Your intentions not only affect yourself, but others in many ways. 
• Finally, understand that what you “can’t” see (your spiritual connection) is at work, whether you believe it or not. 

The Endless Attempt to Improve Sight Word Recall

With conferences wrapping up for the last time this year, I was left with the feeling of worry. This worry is attributed to a few of my students' progress in regards to their vocabulary and high-frequency word gains.

I think it's safe to say that in the primary grades, through grade 3, most teachers know the feeling around this time of year that I share.  We tend to worry about the students that are still struggling with their automaticity and decoding. We can see the effects that this has on their fluency, comprehension and overall confidence with reading. There is only one answer, they NEED to master their high frequency words.

In my class, we study, play with, read, write and do many activities while working with our HFW's, but I still find some of my kiddos, fairly inconstant with them.

I've decided to do some research and try some new strategies for the last half of the year in my classroom.  I'm going to see if we can speed up the gains that I am seeing with my students who are still struggling.

These are some of the strategies I've implemented recently:

1) Super Speed 100-Whole Brain Teaching- Creator Chris Biffle
Although this game is relatively new in my classroom, the kids have really grown on it! We are playing every Friday, and will soon move up to playing 2 times a week. The game focuses on the first 100 fry words, with an option of moving to the first 1000 later on. Students work together to get to level 100, which sounds pretty "heavy," but they take baby steps to get there. It's engaging for students at any level. Check out the link for more specifics.

I used the first two sessions to explain and model the process with a student helper,  while the class observed. After this, I paired all of my students up, made each group one folder, a bounded-book copy of the first 100 words, and a record keeping sheet to stay organized. The Whole Brain Teaching concept (also Chris Biffle) does wonders for my classroom as well.

2) Mnemonic books for individual students: This strategy allows my students to really focus on the specific words that they are still struggling with.  They use the written words combined with self-drawn pictures to study and practice. I've written the words, specific to each student, on one side of a note card, and my students draw a picture that they can relate to the word on the back (i.e. the word: late,the picture: a student running after a bus because they are late). I explain to my kids that the pictures are not meant to be masterpieces. The strategy is meant to help with instant recall of the words. When students feel that they have mastered a word, they can approach my desk in the morning, or before recess, and read it to me in a sentence. When they read it correctly, they enjoy seeing the word being crossed off of their HFW list. In order to ensure that each student has truly mastered the word, I will ask them to read it over several weeks.

3) Relay races: As a class, we get into two groups of 10 and share in a relay race. There is no winner, or loser, only fun. Here's how it works: I stand in front of my class with our words of the week (we have the Treasures Reading Series, which provides 6-8 new HFW's per week).  We review each word prior to playing, and use it in a sentence. The game starts with the first two students approaching me,  saying the word, tapping the card I'm holding, and lastly returning to their line to tap the next individuals hand in line. After we've made it 2-3 times through the lines, I begin to require a sentence with each word. With two students approaching me at a time, it can get pretty exciting and loud, but the students are always smiling, and it moves quick enough for them to stay engaged as they cheer on their team.

With these new strategies, along with the others I am currently using on a daily basis, I hope to see some BIG gains!

I'd love to hear what you do in your classroom. There are never enough ideas!