It's About Time, Teachers, for Syllable Rules!

 

Did you know that teaching syllable division is included in every elementary level of CCSS?

Do your students struggle with dividing words into syllables?

Do you need help teaching the syllabication rules? 

It's about time, then, that you checked out these resources that clearly and concisely explain 16 rules for dividing words into syllables.  

• The rules in each resource are the same.  The graphics reflect the theme.  
• Each poster includes an example word to further illustrate the rule.  That example also reflects the theme.  

To peruse these products, you can click on the above images, or proceed to my TPT store following this link.  You will also find products for practicing these skills.

PHONICS SORTS LITERACY CENTERS FOR PRIMARY CLASSROOMS

It's about time, teachers, for 

This bundle contains 7 phonics sorts literacy centers.  

• Two centers focus on consonant sounds
• 4 concentrate on vowel and vowel digraph sounds 
• One offers practice with initial consonant blends. 
• Two centers are seasonal; the others are not. 
• Four of the centers provide word/picture cards for sorting while one supplies pictures only. These centers provide more support for early readers. 
• Two centers supply word cards only, making them more challenging. 
• Three centers are ideal for book extensions: Owl and Crow Phonics Sort pairs with Barn Dance by Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault and is included in my thematic unit, Hoedown!; Bat Blends Phonics Sort and Bats and Bridges Phonics Sort work well with Jannelle Cannon's, Stellaluna. Both bat phonics sorts are included in my thematic unit, Hanging Out with Stellaluna.

By purchasing the bundle, you will save 20%.    

USING POETRY in the CLASSROOM -- Pt. 4

It's about time, teachers, to explore more possibilities for using poetry in the classroom.  Today's focus is GRAMMAR.

One of the chief reasons I like to use poetry for grammar lessons is that the subject of the lesson is usually quite obvious in the poem.  For example, the following poem practically begs you to teach PUNCTUATION. 

How many punctuation marks you focus on depends entirely on the age and learning stage of your students.  You can see how easy it is to focus on a particular punctuation mark in this poem.  If you are lucky enough to have a smart board, this becomes an interactive lesson.  If, like me, you do not have that resource, you can copy the poem on chart paper and let the students interact with that copy.  Your grammar lesson can be as simple as identifying the punctuation marks, reviewing the role of these marks, or more in-depth instruction about the correct use of less common punctuation such as dashes and semi-colons.

A focus on punctuation in poetry also provides a wonderful opportunity to teach your students to “read the punctuation.”  Modeling the expression that punctuation invokes is an invaluable aid to teaching fluent reading.  In fact, reading poetry is the #1 way to improve fluency!  When you model reading the punctuation, overemphasize the changes in pace, voice, breath, etc.  By teaching your students to "read the punctuation," you will be enhancing comprehension, too!

Poetry can also be used to study PARTS OF SPEECH.  The following poem is one I like to use when studying verbs.  It has a nice variety of action words and I love to point out the verbs the poet chose to use in place of some “tired” ones.

A bonus with this poem is the extensive use of personification.  While you may not think a lesson on personification is appropriate for 1st graders, in order to truly understand the poem, your students will need to realize that the “I” in the poem is the March wind.  Obviously, for older students, personification is an appropriate lesson and is beautifully illustrated in this poem.

Virtually every poem has a grammar lesson hiding in it, just waiting to jump out at you.  All that’s required is to start looking at poems differently.  Try using fresh eyes to identify possible grammar lessons in this poem:

How did you do?  Here some teaching points I found:

1. The importance of using capital letters for months of the year; how hard would it be to understand this poem if it  didn’t have a capital M on the name of the month?

2. Homonyms could be studied, starting with merry/marry/Mary and/or I/eye/aye.

3. The vowel digraph /ay/ is plentiful in this poem.  You may want to make an anchor chart for this digraph.  Extend the learning by including other digraphs for the long a sound.

4. Review punctuation and “reading the punctuation.”  The hyphen may be new to your students.  This is a perfect vehicle for studying it.

5. Identify parts of speech: nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives…

Check back soon for more ideas about using poetry in the classroom. 

You can find more possibilities for teaching with poetry in --

Phonics Sorts for Hard and Soft Consonants

It's about time, teachers, for some phonics sorts!

Do your kiddos need some practice with hard /c/, soft /c/, hard /g/, and soft /g/?  Then check out these fun resources that provide practice with these sounds in the initial and medial positions.

Following are preview videos:

Thanksgiving Emergent Reader

That means it's time for another holiday, emergent reader.  And here it is...

[This is a revised version of this reader. If you have purchased it in the past, you can download the new file for FREE!]

As the literacy coach for my building, I found that the 1st grade teachers were not only willing, but anxious, to meet weekly for a mini-lesson on reading instruction strategies. Their responses have been so favorable that I thought I would share some of the strategies with you.

When working with emerging readers, it is advisable to choose 1 strategy and focus on it until your students show mastery. While I will be covering several topics, you should choose the one that best fits the needs of your students at the time. One of the most valuable lessons I learned in Reading Recovery™ was to avoid the shotgun approach.

High Frequency Word Practice

The text provides practice with the following high frequency words: the, is, on, in, & of. Additional HFW may appear only once, such as inside or between. Some of these HFW may be unknown or partially known. Support your student's efforts by finger masking the new or partially known words.  In this example, where inside is unknown, mask the word so that the reader can recognize the known chunk in. 

Draw your child’s attention to the picture for a clue as to what the word that starts with in- could be. This practice builds the dual skills of chunking and using picture cues. Should the word inside continue to be problematic, draw your finger back slowly while providing the /s/ sound. If the student still cannot provide the word, simply tell him.  

Picture Cues

The last word on each page is a noun that may be unfamiliar to the reader. The illustrations provide support for these unfamiliar nouns. If a student balks when he comes to one of these words, remind him to check the picture for a clue.  

Or, upon turning to a page with a problematic noun, simply remind him briefly about the word on the page by saying, “There’s the [barn].” Then again, you might point to the picture and finger mask the word so that only the first letter shows. Ask him to say that sound. If that still does not elicit the word, tell the child what it is.

1-1 Correspondence/Self-checking

Because the number of words on each page varies, this text provides the opportunity to assess your students’ ability with one-to-one correspondence. To check this skill, ask the student if he had enough words on a given page. Then have him check by pointing to each word as he says them. Ask again, after he points and reads, if he had enough words. On another page, ask if he had too many words. After he points and reads, repeat the question. It is important to make these queries when the student reads correctly, as well as when he omits or adds words. By drawing his attention to this skill, you are giving him the ability to self-check.

It is common for polysyllabic words to be problematic to 1-1 correspondence. Words such as between and pumpkin may entice your student to double point. Or he may get lost in the pointing if he moved on to the next word, but realizes it does not match what he is saying. This is the perfect opportunity to explain that some words have 2 or more beats but still get just one finger point. Again, ask your pupil to check the accuracy of his pointing both when he is correct and incorrect.

Phrasing and Fluency

While emerging readers should not be expected to read fluently, it is never too early to encourage phrased reading. This text offers easy phrasing for young readers. Model the phrasing you desire. 

           

            The turkey is  /  [prepositional phrase].

Staccato reading is a problem that can be difficult to overcome later. Start early encouraging your kiddos to read in phrases.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Never give up.  Great things take time.

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Alphabet Letter Associations

After several decades of teaching first grade, I became a Reading Recovery teacher. Best. Training. Ever!!!! And, oh so, humbling. It was through that training I came to realize some of the mistakes I had been making as a teacher of emerging readers. And, now, it's about time I share some of those revelations--

Chief among them is the realization that the traditional, alphabet letter associations are fraught with pitfalls, especially for reluctant readers. The first problem comes with the letter e. Common picture & letter associations are elephant and egg. Neither is representative of the letter sounds, despite the fact that they bear an initial e.  

As accomplished readers, we know that there is a short e sound of the beginning of elephant.  For emerging readers, however, it sounds for all the world as if the first sound is L.  

(Elephant was at the zoo.)

Similarly, egg sounds like it begins with a long a, at least here in the midwest. I am fortunate to have an easy solution for this "e dilemma;" my students learned to associate the letter e with Evans, my last name!  That will not likely work for you, however. 

So what's a teacher to do?  My kiddos have grown quite fond of these alternatives:

In RR, we let the child provide the association, which is most likely to be the long sound of vowels.  Of course, if s/he supplies elephant, envelope, egg, elbow, ear, or any of the other "confusing" words, it is just fine. As a classroom teacher, you may want to consider such potential confusions when you select your display posters.

Another consideration when choosing vowel associations, is to avoid r-controlled examples. In my experience, however, this is far less problematic for young learners than the above examples.

With regard to consonants, hard consonants are easier for building associations. Think cow vs. circus; game vs. giraffe. Similarly, consonant blends are less clear than simple, initial consonants. Think grapes vs. gorilla; ship vs. sun; chip vs. cap; three vs. tent. You get the idea.

Time is not measured by clocks, but by moments.

You may be interested in these alphabet posters:

February: Do What You Love

One of the things I love to do with my students is immerse them in poetry because it offers so many teaching possibilities. Naturally you can focus on poetic structures and poetic devices. But have you ever used poetry to teach reading skills? Because poetry is usually short and the message concise, it's a perfect venue for studying vowel sounds, contractions, punctuation, parts of speech, syllables, rimes, inflections, .... The  possibilities are nearly endless. It's always good practice to relate these skills to what is being read. Practicing skills in isolation may transfer to reading skill building; then again it may not.  

Does it sound daunting to combine poetry with ELA skills?  It doesn't have to be. As the ELA coach for my elementary building, I determined that poetry was generally intimidating to my teachers, or at least viewed as a luxury that may not receive much attention. Resolving to change that, I began giving my teachers units of poetry with "possibilities" for using it in the classroom.  Since I work with K-5 teachers and students, these Poetry Possibilities units have applications for all elementary levels.

Poems have reading skills already built into them.  All you have to do is look at it with a "reading skills eye." Thus, if the poem is replete with a particular consonant blend, use it in a guided reading lesson about that blend.  If the poem has a sprinkling of contractions, devise a review lesson about contractions using the poem.  As an example, look at the following poem, noting that it has several compound words in it.

Due to the structure of a poem, it is easier for young children to locate the compound words. If you reproduced this poem on sentence strips for use in a pocket chart, that would facilitate identifying the compound words as a group.  With a little magic and masking tape, you could make the compound words come apart. Alternately, you might focus on the punctuation and how it helps the reader to read with expression and fluency. Or, you might choose to conduct a mini-lesson on contractions. For example, the Possibilities for the above poem include:

If you are interested in more seasonal poems with teaching points and skill suggestions, visit my TpT store here. For February poems and possibilities, I have 3 (!) products: Black History Month Poetry Possibilities, February Poetry Possibilities, and  Poetry Possibilities for Winter.  Another unit, 100th Day of School Poetry Possibilities, is useful this time of year, as well. (Better yet, it's FREE!!) 

As a reading specialist, I highly recommend using poems for guided reading lessons and review lessons.  It has always been a favorite activity of my remedial students if for no other reason than they had less text to conquer.  Just a word of caution: reading poetry is principally about creating enthusiasm for reading.  Take care not to defeat that goal by always turning poetry reading into a skill drill.

As proof of just how much I love teaching with poetry, I present my Poetry Possibilities units:

MORE New Centers for Primary Classrooms

Literacy Centers, that is!

Here are 3 more literacy centers your primary students will love:

Watermelon Words is a center focused on compound words.  Your students will find pairs of watermelon slices that form compound words.  The words have a summer theme.  

For the youngest learners, the task is to simply find the pairs.  More capable students can place the 30 cards facedown in a 5x6 array and then play a game of Memory.  This center includes labels for you center folder and a recording sheet.  Watermelon Words literacy center can be found in its entirety in my poetry unit, Poetry Possibilities for Summer.  Now, for the first time, it is offered as a stand alone product.

Lunchbox literacy center is another compound word center.  Students will find pairs of lunchboxes that can form a compound word.  The words in this center are all school related.  A recording sheet is included, as are labels for your folder. This center is included in my Back to School Poetry Possibilties.  It is now available as a stand alone product.  

Flying Dragon Bingo is a versatile center focusing on initial consonant blends.  You can set it up as a small group center, or use it for a whole class game.  Like traditional bingo, each player has a board.  The teacher or leader holds up a picture card.  The students determine the initial consonant blend, covering it with a flying dragon piece.  Each bingo board has the same set of consonant blends; rearranged, of course.  

This center includes 26 bingo boards, 96 picture cards, and as many flying dragon markers as you need.  Labels are provided for your storage folder.  

It's about time to try some new centers!  For even more center ideas, follow/join my collaborative Pinterest board, It's About Time for Literacy Centers.

Other centers you may like: