Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way - Pt. 8

Who-oo-oo knows what time it is? 

Yes, it's time, teachers, to move onto the next step in how words work. That step involves adding letters to the end of known words. We are not talking about inflections! We already did that.  Rather, we are leading the child to notice known words within other words. To do this, make a known word for your student. Say, “This says ‘cat’.  Watch while I add something to it.”  

Push ch to the end of the word. Instruct your student to, “Say it and check it with your finger.”

In the same lesson, do this with other words,  for example, see + m  or can + dy.

Continue to practice this skill in subsequent lessons until the child can do it with ease.  

Reinforce this concept when she is reading a new book by finger masking the last letters of a new word containing a known word.  

You will heave a sigh of satisfaction when she does this for herself while reading.  As my RR trainer used to say, “You will be doing cartwheels down the hallway!”  Indeed, you will.

If you would like a concise document of these Word Work tips, you can find it in my TpT Store.

  

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Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way -- Pt. 4

It's about time, teachers, ... for more Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way.

Now that your student is making KNOWN words easily from a set of letters, it's time to add inflections.  To do this, make a known word for the child, e.g. look.  Initially, you demonstrate the task by saying, "This says look."  

"Watch while I add something to it."  Slide an s to make looks.  

"Now it says looks.  Say it and check it with your finger."  

Do another word in the same lesson with the same inflection.  

Continue in this way on subsequent days, always using known words.  Avoid using words that require a spelling change, such as liking or batted.  Add other inflections until you are sure the child knows the task and understands how words work with inflections. 

As always, push as much of the task onto the child as you can, as soon as you can.

* * * * *

Now it's time for some fun!  

Cynthia over at 2nd Grade Pad has started a game, Who Will be Boo'd?  You've probably all played BOO at school where you leave a ghost on someone's desk or mailbox along with a treat. Let's do the same by sharing some love from our stores...

Here's how to play:

• Choose a fellow blogger that has FEWER followers, another that has about the SAME number of followers, and last, someone that has MORE followers.
• Highlight their blogs with links to encourage others to check them out. Don't forget to let your fellow bloggers know that you shared about them. 
• Last, leave them some love by offering them a goody from your store as their "treat."

Here are my three:

Kristi teaches 2nd grade. She's been blogging since Feb., like me. She loves pinning and has great ideas to share. Check out Lucky in Learning.

Heather at Creation Castle is my newest bloggy friend. She just hosted a Celebrating Literacy Giveaway. I was lucky enough to participate (my 1st giveaway) and loved it! 

Vicky at Traditions, Laughter, & Happily Ever After was one of the first teachers to follow my blog, making her near and dear to my heart. She has an awesome blog filled with fantastic ideas. You've got to check it out.

Now it's your turn. Pass on the BOO to 3 of your favorite blogs, tell us about them, and link up! Feel free to add your link here through Oct. 31st before the ghosts all flee and the turkeys arrive! :-)

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Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way -- Pt.3

It's about time, teachers, for another post about Word Word, the Reading Recovery Way. As a Reading Recovery teacher and literacy specialist, I have spent years collecting data and analyzing techniques to determine what works best for teaching my reluctant readers how to be successful.  These posts represent the sum total of my learning to date.  The steps I am offering have proven very successful with my students, and, hopefully, will bring you the same results.

Once your student has mastered the majority of her letters, begin working on high frequency words that she KNOWS.  To this end, I place a group of letters on the white board that make a word she knows.  

I start with 2 letter words.  This allows the student to learn the task quickly and easily.  At the board, I push the letter set to the center and tell her these letters make a word she knows.  I ask her to make that word.  Once that is accomplished, I ask her to "say it slowly and run your finger under it to check the sounds."  You may have to demonstrate this procedure.

The next step is to use 3 letter words that she knows.

Naturally, that is followed by 4 letter words.

This procedure continues until the task is completed easily.  I do not, typically, progress to 5, or more, letter words.  My goal is to have her manipulate the letters quickly and self-check that the letter sequence matches the sound sequence.  

These tasks are easily adapted to small group instruction.  In deference to time constraints, I place my letter sets in snack size zipper bags ahead of time.  As the students gain facility with the task, I up the ante by giving different words to each student.  We all know how "helpful" first graders can be to each other.  This step allows each student to be more independent.