Emergent Readers for Spring

The Nia Readers are a set of 4 emergent level books for beginning readers. As is typical of emergent readers, these books have consistent print placement and simple, supportive illustrations. The subject matter is familiar to young children; the language structure is natural. Each book features a set of high frequency words in predictable, repetitive sentence patterns. One or two changes are included in each book to ensure that students are attending to the text; not just repeating a memorized pattern.

• Nia’s Toys focuses on these high frequency words: has, a, & no. The text pattern is “Nia has a [toy name supported by picture]."  The last two pages break the pattern. Simple, black and white pictures are attractive and inviting for the children to color.

• Nia Colors the Easter Eggs is a book of seasonal interest. It is a counting book that provides practice with color words. The text pattern is “Nia colors [number] eggs [color word]."  The last page provides a change in the pattern. I recommend inviting the children to color the eggs as described by the text before reading the book independently.

• Nia Goes to the Park tells about her activities at a park and provides a focus on high frequency prepositions (on, in, and with). Other high frequency words include: plays, the, her, & a. The text pattern is “Nia plays [preposition] [article] [noun supported by picture]."  The last two pages break the pattern.

• Nia’s Cupcakes is the most difficult of The Nia Readers. Predictable text is supported by the illustrations. High frequency words include: she, put, on, made, some & color words. The text pattern is “Nia/she put [numeral] [color word] jelly bean(s) on [numeral] cupcake(s).” The numbers are not in sequential order, thus requiring the reader to attend to the text. Similarly, the initial noun varies between “Nia” and “She,” providing additional opportunities for the teacher to determine the student’s attention to the text. Again, you may wish to direct the children to color the illustrations in compliance with the text, thereby offering additional support.  Nia's Cupcakes also invites cross curricular extensions, such as: How many cupcakes did Nia decorate? How many jelly beans did she use altogether? Count, tally, and graph the colors of jelly beans used.

The Nia Readers make great take-home books.  My students are always thrilled by that reality.

BTW, these books are named after my adorable granddaughter. Love her to the moon and back 10,000 times!

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Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way -- Pt. 9

In the course of your word work, teachers, it’s now time to introduce flexibility for spelling patterns that change sounds.  To this end, make 3 words with the same spelling pattern, but differences in sounds, e.g. come, some, home.  

Say the words for your student, pointing out that the spelling pattern is the same.

Now, make 3 more words with a spelling pattern that changes its sounds, e.g. bear, wear, near.  

It’s time to put the task on the child.  Ask her to say the words.  Then ask her if they are words she has heard before.  If she is able to correctly pronounce all of these words, she is demonstrating flexibility.  If, however, she struggles with this, demonstrate for her how readers try different sounds until the word is familiar.  

If the student struggles with flexibility, you can also address the issue in text reading. For example, Marianne Berkes' book, Over in the Ocean: In a Coral Reef, is a counting book that rhymes.  Such a book is great for flexibility because it give your student inherent clues for using flexibility.  On the following page, two is a tricky word with an unusual spelling pattern.

When your student pauses at two, quickly cover the text with your hand and ask her what would make sense there.  

If you receive a blank stare, ask her to reread from the beginning of the page.  When she reaches two, insert the /t/ sound for her and wait for two to pop out of her mouth.  Most often it will pop out.  If, however, it doesn't, remind her that this book is a counting story (there is even the numeral 2 on the page) that also rhymes.  Reread with her from the top of the page, thereby pushing her to read more fluently.  When you reach two, again give the initial sound.  Now it should pop out of her mouth.  If, by chance, she still does not produce two, point to the numeral on the page.  Then, have her reread from the top yet again.  

After she reads it correctly, draw her attention to the word two, and ask her if two makes sense there.  Then ask her if the word looks like it could be two.  Assuming she answers affirmatively to both questions, reassure her that, indeed, it does say two, even if it doesn't look like to or too with which she is familiar.  If she still struggles with this text, it may simply be too difficult for her.  Toss it aside and choose another book.

As always, stay with this task until you are confident she understands it.

The time has come to end this series about Word Work. Hopefully, it has been helpful to those of you working with emergent readers.  The complete text, including points not covered in this blog, is available in my TpT store.

Now that we are in the holiday season, everyone tends to feel a time crunch.  In an effort to ease the stress, Melissa at Mrs. Bushnell's 4th grade blogspot is hosting a holiday linky party. Check it out!  It just might save you lots of planning time.

While you are blog hopping, be sure to check out 3 fabulous giveaways.  Stop by Teacher's Toolkit where Wendy is having a huge giveaway to celebrate 200 followers.  (I'm donating a product of the winner's choice.)

Jennifer at Live. Teach. Create. is having a giveaway, too.  (I'm donating Poetry Possibilities - Fall.) Take a minute to enter.

Nicole at One, Two, Three: Math Time is hosting a monthly giveaway.  Her November giveaway has more than 40 teachers donating products.  (I'm also offering Poetry Possibilities - Fall for this giveaway.)

Until next time...

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.