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.

   

 

Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way - Pt. 2

It's about time, teachers, for Part 2 of Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way.  If you missed my 1st post, you can read it here.

Let me start with an aside:  In America, we typically work on all of the upper case letters first.  As I understand it, our British friends commence with lower case letters.  I say,  "Well done, Brits," because when you introduce proper nouns, it is much easier to instill the need for capitalizing the first letter.  This is as opposed to us Yankees trying to "unlearn" writing every word with a capital letter.  Just food for thought...

Regardless of the letter case you tackle first, you will eventually reach the time when your student must differentiate between upper and lower case letters.  In a sorting activity, that means you will include both cases of known letters.  

Ask the student to sort by letter first.

When she demonstrates automaticity with this sort, proceed to sorting by 2 characteristics:  letter & case.

Up the ante by adding more letters to the pool.

Again sort by letter first.

Then sort by 2 characteristics again.

Before you start working with actual words, conduct other characteristic sorts.  For example, find all the letters that have humps; letters with sticks; letters that start like c.

Go forth & sort!  Then come back for more Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way.

Be sure you check out my facebook page for the grammar gaffe of the day.

Word Work, the Reading Recovery Way

Since completing training as a Reading Recovery™ teacher in 2000, I have been fascinated watching reluctant readers learn how words work. That is, how they can use known words to learn unknown words. In RR we call it "word work," but it is quite different than the "word work" associated with programs like Words Their Way™.

Over the course of my RR and reading intervention teaching, I have sought to find a sequence of skill lessons that would best assist my students in learning to coordinate 2 items of knowledge:

1. linking sound sequence with letter sequence 
2. linking letter sequence with sound sequence

That doesn't sound that hard, does it? But with the lowest 20% of first graders, it can be herculean!

In RR, word work is NOT about learning words. Rather, it is about learning how words work. The idea is much like the parable of the fisherman: give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for life. We all need to teach our students to "fish" in order to ensure lifelong success. Which leads me to the next important point: the child must accomplish as much of the word work task independently as he can handle. Before RR training, I admit that I spoon fed my firsties too often. One of the hardest lessons any teacher learns is to wait. for. the. child. to. respond. 

In RR, teachers are constantly evaluating both the student's work and the teacher's work. To that end, I have come to understand that if the word work done early in the lesson did not go well, then it must be repeated in the same lesson. If the task went well, however, you repeat the task with similar words (or letters). 

Key to the child's success is spending enough time on each task to ensure that he has learned the task. We do a great disservice to our students when we push on without giving them the time to truly learn the foundation skills. Similarly, enough time must be spent on the task to assess the learning. There is a difference between learning the task and actually learning. Confused? Let me give an example: 

Let’s say your student knows the upper case letters L and B. Using the vertical plane white board, you place a pool of magnetic upper case Ls and Bs.

Ask your student to find all the Ls, pushing them quickly into a pile. Repeat with the Bs. Demonstrate the speed you desire, if necessary. Because you are working with known letters, this activity constitutes learning the task. You will repeat this activity with known letters until you are convinced the child understands the task.

Now it’s time to introduce an unknown letter, N. On the white board, you place a pool of 12 - 15 letters - - several of each of the known letters and 3-5 of the new letter.

Instruct the child to find all of the Ls, just as he has done in the past. When that is completed, ask him to find all of the Bs, again forming a pile using the procedure already learned. Finally, direct him to find all of the Ns, showing him an N, if necessary. When he can reliably find the Ns without assistance, he has demonstrated learning. 

Push the child to act quickly, but do not proceed to the next activity until you are sure the child understands the task at hand. An activity of this type should take 3 minutes OR LESS! Remember that 6 year olds have very short attention spans that are enhanced by opportunities to move. That is why, if you have ever witnessed a RR lesson, the child gets up and moves to the vertical plane white board to do this portion of the lesson.

Just  a note to all my OCD friends:  Resist having the child line the letters up in neat rows.  You are seeking instant recognition and speed of reaction; NOT neatness and regimentation!

This is the first post in a series about Word Work, the Reading Recovery™ Way.  Come back soon for the next step.

SCARECROW Craftivity

Halloween is banned at my school.  So, harvest themes are big for craftivities in the fall. One of my favorite projects is making scarecrows. 

You can get the directions and templates from Google Docs.

Goggle Doc

Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UC67hhhSmXEzWNxTdMfNUxjYDorcO5iW08dtnXk4q0o/edit?usp=sharing

Check out a great Fall linky party by Valerie 

This craftivity is one of the activities you will find in my product, Scarecrows.  

It's available on TpT or Teachers Notebook.

Poet-tree

Just outside my classroom window, there is a beautiful maple tree.  My kiddos and I love to watch it grow and change throughout the year.  A while back, I decided to make a paper version of that maple and posted it just outside my classroom door.  Then, as a class, we  would mimic the changes the real tree went through.  

I start with a brown, craft paper trunk. 

Prior to school opening in the fall, I use the school's Ellison Die Cut machine to cut bunches of green maple leaves.  Writing each student's name on a leaf helps to make them feel a part of the group and welcomes them back to school.

                

I put the leaves on the trunk and pretty much leave it alone for awhile.  

As the leaves begin to change colors and fall, we make our tree do the same.  (Swapping the green leaves for the fall leaves is a great activity for early finishers.)

The tree transitions from fall to winter and we replace the leaves with snow (stretched out cotton balls).  All of this is in conjunction with scientific observations of our tree.

Because I do this with 1st graders, the tree does not become a Poet-tree until spring, when they are more skilled writers.  Then, as they write poetry, they make a copy on the computer and print it.  Recycling the green leaves from the fall, my students glue their poems to a leaf and put them on the tree.  It never fails to amaze me how motivating that is for 1st graders!  Before long, the tree is full.

Our tree buds with budding poets!  

Writing Center Graffiti

It's about time, teachers,... that I admit I am a word collector.  I {heart} words.  I {heart} interesting phrases.  Although I do not feel a need for an intervention, I will (gulp) admit that as a child I used to read the dictionary.  

This love affair with words has continued throughout my adult life and I strive to share my passion with my students.  That is what led me to create a graffiti wall in my writing center.  

My graffiti wall is simply a bulletin board dedicated to posts of interesting words and phrases.  Both the students and I can write words on strips of paper and post them on the board.  At the beginning of the year, I demonstrate this by extracting words and phrases from our read-alouds to post on the board.  Before long, my students are pointing out the words they find interesting.  I invite them to copy them and post them on our graffiti wall.  Students who "catch my fever" even bring phrases in from home.

I've forged an alliance with the computer teacher to further spur our graffiti.  When he introduces fonts to my class, he uses some of our graffiti wall words.  Using the SmartBoard, he gives our words "life" by applying cool fonts to them.  You should hear the ooo-s and ah-s! Naturally, there is a marked increase in graffiti after that lesson!  

As a corollary to our graffiti wall, I have a "tired words" board.  We put overworked words to bed and list alternatives on the foot board.

This, too, gains momentum over time.  Before the year is over, we have a dormitory of beds with tired words!

Both of these boards have improved my students' writing markedly.  They are easy to accomplish and the payoff is huge.  Try it.  You'll like it.

USING POETRY IN THE CLASSROOM -- Part 8 -- RANDOM THOUGHTS

It's about time, teachers, ... to wrap up Using Poetry in the Classroom.  As promised, today I'm posting my random thoughts about poetry centers.

Many, many teachers like to use composition books for student anthologies.  They describe having the students paste the poem under study into the book and then use the facing page to write responses.  I prefer to use 3 ring binders because no matter how many times you tell your students that "a dot is a lot," they still get glue on the pages. Carefully tearing the pages apart for them is not my favorite activity and it's way too time consuming.

But, you object, then the students can't write a response on the facing page.  Au contraire!  I have my pupils punch holes on the right margin of the poem.  For many of the poetry responses, I use a Poetry Recording Sheet.

Other times, I have the students insert notebook paper.  Either way, the kiddos now have the poem on the left and response paper on the right.  

Earlier on this blog, I referred to supplies you may wish to have at a poetry center. Although I recommended markers, crayons, scissors, etc., I usually place only colored pencils at the center.  I call them "Poets' Pencils," which makes them more special to the children.  I love the metaphor that "Poets' Pencils" create colorful, figurative language.  

Colored pencils are also preferable for highlighting and underlining words on the poem because they don't bleed through the paper, as markers can.  Moreover, they are erasable, if need be.

By making colored pencils specific to our poetry center, I am also avoiding confusion (and arguments) over whether the markers and/or crayons are part of the center or belong to one of the students. 

Poetry can be used in so many ways to enhance your teaching.  It need not be saved for April, National Poetry Month.   It need not only be used for studying the elements of poetry.  Poems bring rainbows into your classroom.  Visit the land of poems often. You'll be glad you did.

For more ideas for using poetry in your teaching, check out these resources: