Chapter five is based on phonics. In this chapter it states that Louisa Moats surveyed teachers' linguistic abilities and found that 50 percent of the teachers would greatly benefit from additional train in linguistics, and most of all phonics. I thought this really made sense. I remember during Reading and Language Arts, how intimidating learning phonics was. I figured it would be a breeze and then realized that I really needed the additional training and practice that Dr. Walizer provided. On page 107, there is a graph with a person's mouth and where the words come from. I looked at the picture and practiced the words to see how true this picture is. I thought this was interesting and I have always wondered how educators know how to tell students to place their tongues when the student says a certain word. Although this whole chapter was interesting, I really enjoyed the principles of instruction for phonics, and the assessment information for phonics. I think it is important to know how to teach phonics correctly because it is a very important big five element that leads to better reading. One of the principles talks about activities for phonics. I was reading this section and thought about phonics books. When I was in school, phonics books were a big thing and I actually really liked doing these. Do schools still use these or are these considered yucky worksheets now?
Danielle, I also enjoyed the section about where certain sounds come from in the mouth. I did like you and practiced saying the words and I could totally see what the book was saying, about how certain sounds come from certain places. It reminded me of when my brother used to get speech therapy (he has intellectual disabilities) and the therapist would really focus on the position of his tongue in his mouth. I also found it fascinating that teachers should study linguistics to learn phonic better.
Danielle and Amy, I enjoyed reading both of your posts. Danielle I can remember feeling intimidated as well at the beginning of Reading and Language Arts Methods. I found this chapter to be so helpful. All the charts were wonderful. Amy just like you I practiced saying the words and I could see exactly what the book was illustrating as well. This text is going to be something I add to my education library.
Chapter 5 was another great chapter full of very informative information. However, I felt a little over loaded with Phonics!! Not that I didn’t enjoy learning more tools about phonics, ways to say sounds, understand them through ELS students, or utilize the great steps for teachers to use when teaching phonics…There just seemed to be a lot to learn about in a small amount of pages. Something I never know before was “grapheme”. This is a one letter or a cluster of letters (/w/,/i/, and /sh/) & three graphemes (w.i. and sh) that was new to me and a bit overwhelming. I understand and learned the concept but I did not know they were called, Graphemes…that was the new part (p. 103). It is also very interesting to understand how I was feeling overwhelmed as the English Alphabet is the most complicating languages and sounds to learn because of all the sounds, and similar sounds just one letter can make. Example: letter K – Book, Kite, Cake and then the silence K – Know!! I had a lot of questions while reading this chapter but one thing I wanted to know most of all is. How does it affect a student’s ability to use proper sounds and proper sounds, if their teacher themselves has an accent or is an English Learner themselves? How would this work? I also liked, just like last chapter, the activities this chapter shared. One of my favorites is the Flip Book on pg. 117! I will be utilizing this activity this semester with my own students! This chapter really allowed me the ability to connect the difficulty of just how much is expected from our students to learn and teachers to teach! Learning proper ways to connect with our students individually is critical to our student’s success. I never did struggle with my speech or speaking abilities however, I did struggle with understanding what everything was such as nouns, verbs, short and long sounds and so forth. The classroom I am in right now for internship has Phonic Awareness all around the room. Making learning to read such a great experience and fun!!
Jennifer, phonics is very frustrating for us as adults so I'm sure it's equally or even worse for children. As far as your questions go, I think that having a teacher with an accent would affect how students hear the proper sounds. I feel like in this case you would really have to ensure that students were getting support at home to make sure they hear things correctly. Also, I feel like maybe during reading time a para could come in and also help out.
Danielle, I found the picture of all the phonic words and positioning of the tongue and mouth interesting too!! I did not realize that there were so many different ways in which to place your mouth to get the accurate sound produced GREAT illustration! I agree that I too enjoyed this chapter and it really did emphasize much of what we have learned from Language Arts at Fort Hays, and I too agree that there are so many more ways in which I could have benefited from regarding reading and understanding phonic awareness and everything else connected to it.
This chapter reminded me of how I felt last year when I learned about phonics in RLA Methods, which was “How on earth did any of us ever learn to read?” This chapter really makes it seem so difficult that it is no wonder there are so many struggling readers in our schools. I still get really confused between digraphs and diphthongs and phonograms and such. I mean, when I read about them I know what they are but when I look away from the book I have to ask myself what it is I just read.
I have one very specific point of confusion: Dr. Walizer beat phonograms into our heads until I was singing them in my sleep. But now I’m reading that phonograms are actually “the vowel and any letter that follows the beginning consonant.” The example the text gives is am in Sam. What we learned as phonograms were digraphs and diphthongs – some were listed in the book and some were not. I’m not saying she’s wrong I just want to know why the textbook doesn’t say she’s right. I guess I want to get this cleared up because I don’t want to look like an idiot in a job interview when I talk about my expertise in teaching phonograms that may or may not be actual phongrams.
Great point in your first sentence. As an adult I never even think to see how much goes into reading and speaking. I wish I could remember trying to learn phonics in school, unfortunately my memory isn't that good. I had the same question you had when it came to what a phonogram is. I also thought they were dipthongs and diagraphs; I actually put phonograms on my Trifold with those two things in mind. According to the book they are rimes. That is a little confusing to me and wonder which way is the correct way.
Amy, I just laughed out loud at your first sentence because I thought the same thing. I goes to show us that we should always be patient because even under the best circumstances reading will likely be one of the hardest academic areas for our students to master at such a young age. It is insane how many different rules there are and how they change based on how the letters are positioned in the word. I tutor my son 5 days a week and we just learned a few new spelling rules last week that made me think this same thing again. The Cry Baby rule...y says /i/ after a one syllable word but y says /e/ after a too syllable word but only at the end. The FLOSS rule that says you double a f,l,z,and s at the end of a single syllable word except for bus, yes and gas. And let’s not even talk about c is /s/ or /k/ if it is after a e,i or y. It is amazing that any kid just simply gets how to read without intensive instruction. I am so confused for our students.
All three of you have great points! I constantly have to look back to make sure I am describing parts of speech, a word, or any other confusing rule from reading correctly. This is why math is my favorite subject and reading is my favorite hobby :) I would like clarification on the phonogram question as well. I wonder how teachers in international schools teach English? This may be something I would like to look in to in order to better understand the basics of teaching reading.
Amy- I thought the same thing...how in the world did I ever learn how to read and more importantly, how in the world am I going to take this information and teach someone else how to read?!? I do think with young children some may become overwhelmed if words like phonemes, diagraphs, and phonograms are thrown around they could become confused. I think it is our job to put them at ease and to take the instruction at their speed. Who knows, maybe if we use the terms from the start, they will better know what they are and what they mean all along and there wouldn't be as much confusion as there is with this "mature" non-traditional student! Ha!
Chapter 5 is a good chapter on phonics. It gives the reader a lot of useful figures and Appendices to help teach these skills. It is hard to imagine just how many different sounds there are in the English language. As an adult, I just take it for granted when reading and writing. Students need to learn many different ways for one sound and so on. I particularly enjoyed some of the activities in the intervention section and plan to use a couple during tutoring. I have a sentence strip part on my Trifold and the Word Sorting with words activity would be great for that. Also I really liked the dictionary and index card ideas. Students could keep these with them at all times for something to look over as well as look back on to help them with words. There was one thing that confused me in the text. I thought Phonograms were another way of saying dipthongs and diagraphs, but according to the book a phonogram is essentially a rime? When I put Phonograms on my Trifold I did it with the expectation of using dipthongs and diagraphs on it, now I'm wondering if that's incorrect. Either way this chapter had some great activities and teaching ideas and I plan on using at least a couple of the activities in my tutoring, maybe more if needed.
This would be a great source to use for tutoring activities, I agree! I also am very thankful I was raised with the English language. As stated, this is one of the hardest languages to learn with all the many different ways to present one sound. Yesterday while I was listening to my students while they were doing their assessments, such as the nonsense words, it was interesting to see them work through the nonsense words.
Chapter 5 provided a beautiful overview of phonics. I can remember my Spanish teacher stating the English language is the most complicated language because we have so many different ways of pronouncing words, letter sounds, and word rules. I have to say I agree. I found it very interesting how the beginning of the chapter highlighted how important it is for an educator to be knowledgeable in phonics. I honestly do not remember learning phonics in school. Of course I remember learning the ABC's and vowels, etc. But I do not remember actually learning the sounds of a long or short vowel or phonograms. After taking the Reading and Language Arts I saw the importance of phonics. This chapter can be very beneficial to future teachers as I found it very helpful for myself. I particularly like the phonics glossary on page 104. I see how this could be very helpful when aiding young readers. Another useful chart was provided on page 106 addressing nine useful consonant generalizations. The intervention activities located at the end of the chapter were wonderful additional resource. I have no questions regarding the text but I will state again how useful this textbook will to add to my education library.
Jade, I agree the university has done a very good job at stressing the importance of early phonemic awareness and the ideas of phonics. I think that when this information is expressed in this way students within the university should get an idea of how important these ideas are. Ricky
As an adult, I just take speaking and reading correctly for granted though it is a very complex system. I'm glad we have so many activities and ideas to choose from to help us when we are tutoring and then teaching.
To start off this chapter gave the definitions of a phoneme and a grapheme. A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech sound, and then a grapheme is the written representation of the phoneme. For myself I've always had trouble writing out the graphemes of words and therefore feel like it would be challenging to children as well. I really appriciated the phonics gloassary at a glance on page 103 beacuse it really spelled out blends, clusters, and so on of words. I think phonics is very challenging to students that are ELL's and having familiar words for them that you can use as examples I feel would help them make sense of different sounds. The most helpful part of this chapter for me was the princpoes of phonics instruction. There are four: 1. Base instruction on what students know. 2. Provide systematic instruction. 3. Use appropriate text. 4. Embed instruction in meaningful contexts.
I really liked the activities at the back of the chapter to include in your classroom. Word Walls is a big one that you see in classrooms today. I think that you can take that one step further and incorporate a math word wall or even have a book where students could make their own little wall of words and each week they write their spelling words init. I also really liked the word sorts and word family dictionary. I think that phonics and creativity are endless and teachers really can be creative with how they use and incorporate phonics into their classrooms. I'm excited to get my own room and set up my own word walls and more!
Kendra, I liked your ideas on the second post. Word walls really have become a prevalent part of the classroom recently. This is one of those situations where it is better to embrace the situation as to fight it. Very good analysis. Ricky
So Chapter 5 reminded me a lot of a couple other text books that offered multiple ideas and really broke down the phonics rules. The good thing is that with all the different books I have seen regarding phonics they are all different Different ideas is just another for of ideas that are provided to the student. i really liked the phonics glossary at the start of the chapter. It was a compact nicely located form with the meanings and breakdown of different terminology. I also liked reading the different ways that students learn phonics. Giving information like that is like telling someone how ice cream is made. Once you know how to do it yourself you can always do it. The other thing I found really interesting was the articulation of the vowel sounds. That really made some things more clear about how Dr. Walizer during the spring semester would make the sounds so prominent when she said them. Really drawing out the low long O in bot. Seeing that picture made a lost of sense for me. All of the activities that were in the book just fall in the category of more activities and information that can be used in the classroom. having more engaging activities can only make the teaching experience for students even better.
I too really liked how this chapter broke down the phonics rules. It is something that doesn't hurt to brush up on since we do this so regularly now and don't realize we do this automatically. When having to break it down, I get tripped up a bit. This chapter was a really good read and one that I will probably be looking at again.
1.This chapter gives the teacher help in understanding how students learn phonics in three layers: alphabetic, pattern, and meaning. On page 109 there are four key principles of phonics instruction: (1) base instruction on what students know, (2) provide systematic instruction, (3) use appropriate texts, and (4) embed instruction in meaningful contexts. The most effective tool is using literature that is predictable, uses phonograms and includes rhyming words (110). There are a number of informal assessments given in this chapter. The rest of the chapter includes activities that help with initial consonant sounds, rhyme, word patterns, sounds within words, and words within words. 2.I do not have any questions about this chapter. 3.I am realizing how complicated our language is and how children can be confused because of the complexities. There are many different areas to look at just in the area of phonics, but this chapter offers many activities to help us with that which I like. It also gives some websites to make it fun and more interesting for children. 4.In my first two tutoring sessions, as I gave the PQT assessment, I noticed that for some, connecting the correct phoneme to the correct grapheme was very difficult. I can tell it is terribly confusing to them at this point. I am anxious to get started so they can become confident and with repetition it should begin to make more sense to them.
Patti- I also made a connection from this chapter to my tutoring sessions. I am tutoring first grade and when I administered the nonsense word fluency assessment, I see how very important it is that children learn phonemic awareness. This is the basis for everything! In fact, one of my students has a hard time remembering how to write a "b" and a "d". I was aware of this on the enrollment form, yet when I went to assess, I noticed this student not only struggled with how you write it, she struggled with visually identifying a "b" and a "d" which led to struggling with the sound they make.
After reading Chapter 5 in our DeVries I have come up with two conclusions: 1) how in the world did I ever learn how to read the English language? 2) how in the world am I ever going to teach a child how to read the English language? I totally agree with the beginning of the chapter that older students really don’t need phonics instruction…except for an ESOL student who does not have phonics instruction in their background knowledge. With an ESOL student, you need to go back to the basics and help them build the foundation that English speakers have been taught from the very beginning. This is why older English speaking children have this instruction in their background knowledge because it has been taught from the moment they enter school. It will be harder for an ESOL student, because as we learned in the previous chapter, some phonemes are not present in some native languages and they don’t know the sound and position of the mouth and tongue. All of this must be taught to them. I feel that teacher modeling is so incredibly important. The more the teacher can model and get the children talking about patterns they see, initial sounds/ending sounds/medial sounds they hear, they better they will be saying these sounds and understanding them. For actually teaching phonics, I think it is also important to be as organized as possible and sequence the instruction. This is easier for the student to follow. For me, the most important piece I got from the reading this week is the principles of phonics instruction. Principle 1 makes perfect sense to base the instruction on what the student knows. Beginning instruction at their level is crucial because you don’t want to teach or introduce a lesson that is way above, or way below, their developmental stage. Principle 2 goes back to teaching in sequence and this is supported by Principle 1 to find lessons and texts that are appropriate for their developmental stage. These first two principles then support Principle 3 to use the appropriate texts. Choosing texts that are not challenging at all for a child teaches them nothing. They will breeze through the instruction and be bored. Choosing text that is too hard will frustrate the child and will not be beneficial either. It is so important to choose text and material that allows the student to recognize words that they know as well as introduce new words that give some challenge. Principle 4 is to embed instruction in meaningful contexts. There are so many creative ways this can be done and what can really “hook” the student and get them interested in the lesson and attend. Where I am a little lost I feel are the assessments. I think this comes from never doing this before and not only the diagnostics assessments, but formative assessments too. How do I see growth? How do I see if they are understand and getting the instruction? How do I know when to move on? I am sure this will become clearer as I gain more experience with it and become more comfortable. Since I am tutoring 2 first grade girls, I found the activities for phonics at the end of the chapter very useful and easily integrated in my lessons.
I agree with you that the principles are extremely important and like you said they make perfect sense in regards to phonics instruction. I thought the same about teacher modeling. There are so many fun and creative ways to conduct phonics instruction. I was also talking about the text discussion on the importance of phonics instruction with older ESL students in my blog. I am working with two ESL students in my tutoring sessions and am a little nervous about the assessment results showing weakness in certain skills because of their language barrier, or learning disabilities. I guess I am concerned because I don't want to mistake their needs as a language barrier if there is no language barrier there. Does that make sense? I am left wondering how a teacher really knows if an ESL student has special needs because of a learning disability, or if it is their language barrier that is creating the needs. Another concern that I had was exactly what you were asking. What kind of assessments should I do in my tutoring sessions to acknowledge student growth? Like you said how does the educator recognize when it is time to move on to other skills in their instruction? I am sure that all new educators have this concern. I enjoyed reading your blog. You have a lot of great ideas, and concerns as well.
I learned so much about phonics in this lesson. Reading has always been a struggle for me and I think that’s why I want to teach k-1st graders. I want to help them learn to read before they reach that frustration point. If you were an early reader you can’t imagine the feeling of simply not being able to do it no matter how hard you work. I was 11 years old before it finally clicked for me and I own that to my grandmother that refused to give up on my crying butt. I am amazed that children learn to read as fast as they do as I learn all the variations in our language. In looking at the table on page 107 it is clear to see how some kids get confused when reading. I get confused when spelling and I’m 30 years old. As teachers we need to understand that our children will get frustrated and that we need to be okay with this and ready to help them get over the hump. I also really liked the checklist in figure 5.8 because it can get so crazy trying to keep everything straight. As teachers we need to keep clear records that we can look back to show progress as well as figure out what we need to do different in our next lesson. Over all I can see how phonics is a vital step in the reading progression and how teachers need to make sure that their students master each level of it as they move forward.
I too feel that phonics is very important at an early age. I feel that not enough phonics is taught at the early primary grade levels. I have see very little phonics being taught in my area grade school. It is really sad since there are many students in this school district that are struggling with reading. I think that this will solve some problems.
After reading chapter 5 in Devries I am realizing how very important it is to demonstrate student growth in phonics at an early age. Educators need to realize that one of the first reading skills that students need is to understand how the sounds of language create words. I am tutoring two ESL students in my tutoring sessions, and I have to agree with the text in saying that phonics instruction is needed in older ESL students that do not have that background knowledge in phonics. Otherwise, like the reading says, phonics instruction is not needed for older students. For ESL students it is important that they go back to the very basics, which begins with phonics. I believe this because different phonemes are used with other native languages, which are not used in the English language. During my school years we never had phonics instruction in regards to decoding words, and encoding words. The school that I work for uses the Rebecca Sitton reading in lower grades, which deals a lot with decoding words. Before I started working as a Para educator 6 years ago, I had never seen decoding. If my child would have brought home a worksheet asking me how to “code” words, I wouldn’t have had a clue as to how to help them. Now that I know how decoding and encoding works, it is my opinion that it makes perfect sense that these phonics lessons are added into the learning. Although I gained a lot of knowledge from reading this chapter I believe that the most important information that I got from this reading was how very important teacher modeling is in phonics instruction. In my mind a lot of the information that was given is often taught through a majority of teacher modeling. I am thinking that all of the phases that were discussed revolve around instruction that incorporates teacher modeling. The teaching instructions that you provide as the educator are what is ultimately going to determine how much learning takes place in your classroom. Another key topic that was talked about was the four key principles of phonics instruction. These are 1) basing instruction on what students know 2) providing systematic instruction 3) using appropriate texts, and 4) embedding instruction in meaningful contexts. This all revolves around teacher modeling. The reading discusses assessments also. My concern or question would be what types of assessments can I administer to my students that I am tutoring in order to recognize student development, or growth? I enjoyed reading the different “Intervention Strategy Activities that were given at the end of the chapter, and plan to use many of them in my lessons this next few months of tutoring.
I really like your comment that teacher modeling is one of the most important factors in teaching reading. This is one of the reasons that I am such a big fan of guided reading programs. Like you said, it can also be especially beneficial in teaching phonics.
Also, I have found myself wondering about how to assess the students weekly as well to measure growth. I know the summative assessments will tell us quite a bit about their growth over the semester, but weekly growth will be important in these weekly sessions as well.
This chapter was a very good overview of the phonic information that was presented to us in Reading and Language Arts. I really like how the text mentions that students learn letter sound relationships more effectively when they find books that they really enjoy and are able to talk about it. I think that is a very important topic to cover. We have to find books that interest the child or their interest is going to decline with reading. I have the hardest time trying to engage my son with reading. I buy him all the books that would interest him and I am not having any luck. I thought that it was a good idea to write the long a sounds with words that has the sound in them. I want to do this and keep with me. I have been explaining a sound and try really hard on the spot to think of a word that would demonstrate it. These cards would be a perfect reference for us. And as the book mentioned for students to do this with the book they are reading. I can already tell that this chapter is one that I will continue to reference as I continue to tutor and teach my sons.
I agree Hanna, it is interesting that if we find books they really enjoy and are able to talk about they will learn more effectively. My youngest son just started enjoying to read and he is in the seventh grade. He never was one to sit for very long. I am glad we read this chapter before I tutor my students this week it has really helped me.
After completing my assessments this week and finding that my 3rd graders will probably need help with phonics, this chapter was an excellent review for me. I had learned much of this last semester in Reading and Language Arts Methods, but it is always nice to get a refresher.
In particular, I found the figures on page 107 and 108 about generalizations about consonants and vowels to be the most useful tool for my tutoring program. I think including a daily review of these generalizations will really help the students in learning how to sound out words. I'm even thinking about adding these to my tri-fold if I go with phonics as my content focus.
The other good resources that I found in this chapter were the activity ideas. I really like the idea of the word family word wall, which help with phonogram practice, as well as rhyming practice. I also like the Change Hen to Fox activity on page 121, as it reminds of of a word building activity that we do at the school already.
Overall, I think I will be using this chapter as a resource throughout the next few weeks of tutoring.
Carissa, This is definitely a great resource for tutoring this semester. I think you should absolutely add those vowel and consonant generalizations to your tri-fold, especially if you think your students will greatly benefit from them. Practicing and seeing them every session, will definitely help. I am also going to incorporate the word walls into my lessons and the various spellings for vowels and diphthongs. The tables are so user friendly, that it makes incorporating the ideas into lessons very easy.
This chapter on phonics came at exactly the right time! My content focus for tutoring is going to be on phonics and this was a great refresher for me. The activities were very helpful as well, I have even decided to incorporate several into my lesson plans for next week. The text did tell us that students can get confused if introduced to all the jargon, and I'll be honest, I still sometimes get overwhelmed by it all too. So, I can only imagine how a student would feel. I found the phonics glossary to be a great tool in keeping everything organized for myself and I will probably refer back to it often. I found figures 5.2 and 5.7 extremely helpful and they will help me throughout the semester when building my lesson plans. I also liked that it showed me what my second graders would be learning through phonics instruction and what they may have learned or mastered at the first grade level. The debate over whether phonics instruction is needed for older students is still one that I am not comfortable taking a stand on. But, through discussions and meetings with some of the classmates, not all of their students have a solid phonics foundation even at grades three and four. Phonics instruction may be very beneficial to these students, and may even be a necessity in order to move on to other instructional areas.
I am also doing phonics! I thought the activities listed in chapter 5 were so helpful and different from anything that I had thought about using. Good luck in your sessions!
1. Analysis of the reading/issue. Chapter 5 was about Phonics and I was excited about this chapter because that is what my content focus is for our tutoring sessions. At the beginning of the chapter I thought it was a great review of decoding and encoding and also consonants and vowels. I liked that I was able to get a refresher on how to teach those and the background information. The text talked about the four principles of phonics instruction. I was happy to see that I am on the right path when it comes to my tutoring sessions. Another things that I liked about chapter 5 were all the activity suggestions. I particulary liked the Personalized Word Family Dictionary. With the kids I have in tutoring I think this will be a great activity to use and to keep all of them focused and on task. 2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue. The only thing I had a question on was the assessments. How to keep track of the students progress. 3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? I was surprised to see at how much of phonics instruction that I remembered and have been putting into my lesson plans. 4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience. On page 117 there is an example of a flip book. Now I didn't use a flip book but I have done something similar to this with one of my students in tutoring. She was struggling through the testing so after we were all done I just sat down with her and broke down each word just for practice. I covered the last part of the word and helped her read through them. It seemed to help!
Tammi, I am doing phonics as well. So this is great for me too. I think phonics is very important for students to really understand. I too liked the different examples that were given in this textbook. This is defiently a book that I will be keeping in my professional library.
Tammi, I have a phonics flip book that I got from out reading and language arts methods class. It has already proven to be a great resource. If you need one, I bet you can find one on-line for free or I would bet that many of the individuals in this class have their copy that we downloaded from Dr. W. I am sad to say that I do not have mine due to the fact that I have a new computer (mine died in the middle of the semester last year) I read this chapter before writing lesson 3 and 4 and I was also surprised how phonics focused I was despite my fluency goal. However, my students scored so low in several areas and fluency seems to be connected to all of the others. I hope someone answers your question about scoring. For my goal I said that I wanted them to have a (whatever percentage) increase so that I could see movement over the course of the semester. However, it would be nice to know how others are addressing it.
My content focus is Phonics so this chapter could not have come at a better time! I need all the extra help I can get when working with my students because they are so low. I really like the different activities they suggest in the book and will use several of them like the Personalized Word Family Dictionary. I also felt that the material for ESL students was helpful and will be good to use for my lower students. I will use checklists a lot in my tutoring for daily assessments which will help me with my lesson plans. I think kids learn well when doing movement activities and rhyming activities. I have to be honest after my students did the Phonic Quick Test I felt like I needed tutoring in Phonics.
I was also very excited when I found out what our chapter was on! Great timing, huh? My overall focus is on phonics as well. I also liked the different activities. I am glad that I have one more resource to reflect on when working with my group.
Chapter 5 was about phonics. Phonics are important for decoding words when reading. It is important for students to master the skill of decoding words so they can figure out words they don't know when reading. I had no questions about the chapter. I have seen when working in the past with ELL students how they have problems with decoding there words. Their problems are caused by the difference is language. I can relate to this chapter with my own daughter. She is three right now. For some reason when she says lid she always says lip. She speaks very well but just this one word for some reason has been hard for her. I have been practicing with her to say lid right.
I find that very interesting about your daughter! However, I think it is sort of common for very young children to do things like that. I agree with you that phonics are important. I am really happy to be learning about phonics because it is my overall unit focus.
1. Analysis of the reading/issue. Chapter five of the textbook Literacy Assessment & Intervention by B. Devries discusses the importance of phonics which the textbook states “reading researchers and educators agree that phonics is important for readers as they attempt to understand how the sounds of language create words (Devries, 102). It is important to understand the sounds that make the words in order to understand the word as a whole. The first part of the text discussed the definition of phonemes and graphemes. This chapter of the textbook also discusses what teachers should know which according to the textbook includes “interpret and respond to readers’ errors, provide clear and simple examples for decoding and spelling, organize and sequence instruction, explain spelling patterns, integrate language instruction” (Devries, 104). If the teacher can understand these concepts then they are better able to help students that may be struggling with reading. This chapter also discusses the “four key principles of phonics instruction” (Devries, 109).
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
I did not have any question in this chapter of the textbook.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently? I really liked the chart on page 103 and 104 of the textbook that gave the “phonics glossary at a glance” (Devries, 103- 104). This chapter of the textbook gave be several different ways that I can help students in the classroom learn phonics which included finding patterns for the students to recognize, “encode words”, and discuss the words with the students to help them understand (Devries, 105). Helping the students learn phonics seems through patterns was a very important concept in this chapter.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience. I think that all the key principles of phonemic instruction is important but the one that seemed to stick out to me and remind me of me previous experience was principle 4 which mentioned that the reading should be meaningful and the students should enjoy it. I remember I always had to read books that I did not enjoy therefore I did not want to read them. The class would spend a lot of time reading these long chapter books, that I already struggled with because of my reading disability but on top of that did not want to read because they were not interesting. These chapter books that we read in class would revolve around everything that we did in language arts and we were not able to pick what we liked or wanted to read. I did not know the joy of reading this way, which did not help me improve my reading skills.
Chapter five was over phonics. I was especially happy to be covering this chapter because phonics is the overall unit focus in my lessons. I liked the section over what teachers should know. This is important because it helps us understand the information about phonics a little more. We talked a lot about phonics in Reading and Language Arts methods. I was really happy to read the section about vowels, because that is what I am working on in my third and fourth lessons. However, it was good to see it all again and I learned a lot from this chapter. I do not have a lot of questions about the assigned reading. However, I got to thinking about the “Principles of phonics instruction” section on page 109. In this section it talks about the four key principles that underlie phonics instruction. The very first one is to base instruction on what students know. When we have our own class, there is a good chance (especially at upper elementary grades) that we will have students at different reading levels that are all over the place. I want to know some of the common areas we start instruction for lower-level students and higher-level students. I can relate to phonics mostly through classes I have taken. I really love the phonics dance we learned. I had never heard of it before, and I look forward to using it in my group and in my classroom.
I am also using phonics as my content focus. I thought you question about base instruction in the upper grades was great, I also was wondering this. It would be helpful to have this addressed in class. I also will be using the phonics dance as a review this week in my tutoring sessions. It sounds like the chapter was a great review for you! Have a good week.
I just did that thing happen to me that we all dread. That moment that all of us have done at least once, that dreaded moment when you realize that you have lost all of the post you have been typing when you were almost complete with it. Arrggg. This chapter was once that met me with a bit of fear. I was a bit nervous because I had a really hard time with it in Dr. W's methods class. However, I found that, much like all of you, the review could not have come at a better time. I read this chapter before writing my lessons 3 and 4 and found that it greatly influenced my lesson plans. While my content focus is fluency I recognize that my students have low phonics skills and low comprehension. Mixing these three will only prove to make them better readers. I particularly liked the section on encoding as it will give me some ways to help my students. I liked that this chapter provided us with activities and it reminded me of some of my texts from R&LA Methods that might be helpful as I write more lesson plans this semester. I did not have any questions about the text but can say that i am grateful that this chapter helped to reduce my anxiety about cooking this week.
One thing to add: I was wondering if anyone wished they had someone to do the suggested lesson activities on/with while reading this text. these activates seems so very doable and fun which was great to see. I absolutely plan to use some of them!
Chapter Five Blog Zoë Greenemeyer After determining that phonics will be my focus for my tutoring session the chapter reading for this week was very educational. I have found that the students I am tutoring have difficulty with the ability to distinguish oddity and the information on this subject was very helpful. I also thought that the activities within the chapter provided insight into how I can provide the strategies to students in a fun way. I can remember jump rope jingles from when I was a kid and did not realize there would be a connection to phonics. I thought it was fascinating to learn that other languages have unique phonemes and have different phoneme placement. In the school my daughter attends they teach Spanish starting in kindergarten, I will be interested to know how the correlate the teaching of English and Spanish and if students ever face confusion.
Thank you all for your posts and replies. Again, in order to prevent loss of points on your grade, please follow the rubric as outlined in your syllabus! Pay particular attention to the first question being asked of you to provide - Analysis of the Text/Reading!
Chapter five is based on phonics. In this chapter it states that Louisa Moats surveyed teachers' linguistic abilities and found that 50 percent of the teachers would greatly benefit from additional train in linguistics, and most of all phonics. I thought this really made sense. I remember during Reading and Language Arts, how intimidating learning phonics was. I figured it would be a breeze and then realized that I really needed the additional training and practice that Dr. Walizer provided.
ReplyDeleteOn page 107, there is a graph with a person's mouth and where the words come from. I looked at the picture and practiced the words to see how true this picture is. I thought this was interesting and I have always wondered how educators know how to tell students to place their tongues when the student says a certain word.
Although this whole chapter was interesting, I really enjoyed the principles of instruction for phonics, and the assessment information for phonics. I think it is important to know how to teach phonics correctly because it is a very important big five element that leads to better reading. One of the principles talks about activities for phonics. I was reading this section and thought about phonics books. When I was in school, phonics books were a big thing and I actually really liked doing these. Do schools still use these or are these considered yucky worksheets now?
Danielle,
DeleteI also enjoyed the section about where certain sounds come from in the mouth. I did like you and practiced saying the words and I could totally see what the book was saying, about how certain sounds come from certain places. It reminded me of when my brother used to get speech therapy (he has intellectual disabilities) and the therapist would really focus on the position of his tongue in his mouth. I also found it fascinating that teachers should study linguistics to learn phonic better.
Amy
Danielle and Amy,
DeleteI enjoyed reading both of your posts. Danielle I can remember feeling intimidated as well at the beginning of Reading and Language Arts Methods. I found this chapter to be so helpful. All the charts were wonderful. Amy just like you I practiced saying the words and I could see exactly what the book was illustrating as well. This text is going to be something I add to my education library.
Chapter 5 was another great chapter full of very informative information. However, I felt a little over loaded with Phonics!! Not that I didn’t enjoy learning more tools about phonics, ways to say sounds, understand them through ELS students, or utilize the great steps for teachers to use when teaching phonics…There just seemed to be a lot to learn about in a small amount of pages. Something I never know before was “grapheme”. This is a one letter or a cluster of letters (/w/,/i/, and /sh/) & three graphemes (w.i. and sh) that was new to me and a bit overwhelming. I understand and learned the concept but I did not know they were called, Graphemes…that was the new part (p. 103). It is also very interesting to understand how I was feeling overwhelmed as the English Alphabet is the most complicating languages and sounds to learn because of all the sounds, and similar sounds just one letter can make. Example: letter K – Book, Kite, Cake and then the silence K – Know!!
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of questions while reading this chapter but one thing I wanted to know most of all is. How does it affect a student’s ability to use proper sounds and proper sounds, if their teacher themselves has an accent or is an English Learner themselves? How would this work?
I also liked, just like last chapter, the activities this chapter shared. One of my favorites is the Flip Book on pg. 117! I will be utilizing this activity this semester with my own students!
This chapter really allowed me the ability to connect the difficulty of just how much is expected from our students to learn and teachers to teach! Learning proper ways to connect with our students individually is critical to our student’s success. I never did struggle with my speech or speaking abilities however, I did struggle with understanding what everything was such as nouns, verbs, short and long sounds and so forth. The classroom I am in right now for internship has Phonic Awareness all around the room. Making learning to read such a great experience and fun!!
Jennifer, phonics is very frustrating for us as adults so I'm sure it's equally or even worse for children. As far as your questions go, I think that having a teacher with an accent would affect how students hear the proper sounds. I feel like in this case you would really have to ensure that students were getting support at home to make sure they hear things correctly. Also, I feel like maybe during reading time a para could come in and also help out.
DeleteDanielle,
ReplyDeleteI found the picture of all the phonic words and positioning of the tongue and mouth interesting too!! I did not realize that there were so many different ways in which to place your mouth to get the accurate sound produced GREAT illustration! I agree that I too enjoyed this chapter and it really did emphasize much of what we have learned from Language Arts at Fort Hays, and I too agree that there are so many more ways in which I could have benefited from regarding reading and understanding phonic awareness and everything else connected to it.
This chapter reminded me of how I felt last year when I learned about phonics in RLA Methods, which was “How on earth did any of us ever learn to read?” This chapter really makes it seem so difficult that it is no wonder there are so many struggling readers in our schools. I still get really confused between digraphs and diphthongs and phonograms and such. I mean, when I read about them I know what they are but when I look away from the book I have to ask myself what it is I just read.
ReplyDeleteI have one very specific point of confusion: Dr. Walizer beat phonograms into our heads until I was singing them in my sleep. But now I’m reading that phonograms are actually “the vowel and any letter that follows the beginning consonant.” The example the text gives is am in Sam. What we learned as phonograms were digraphs and diphthongs – some were listed in the book and some were not. I’m not saying she’s wrong I just want to know why the textbook doesn’t say she’s right. I guess I want to get this cleared up because I don’t want to look like an idiot in a job interview when I talk about my expertise in teaching phonograms that may or may not be actual phongrams.
Great point in your first sentence. As an adult I never even think to see how much goes into reading and speaking. I wish I could remember trying to learn phonics in school, unfortunately my memory isn't that good. I had the same question you had when it came to what a phonogram is. I also thought they were dipthongs and diagraphs; I actually put phonograms on my Trifold with those two things in mind. According to the book they are rimes. That is a little confusing to me and wonder which way is the correct way.
DeleteAmy, I just laughed out loud at your first sentence because I thought the same thing. I goes to show us that we should always be patient because even under the best circumstances reading will likely be one of the hardest academic areas for our students to master at such a young age. It is insane how many different rules there are and how they change based on how the letters are positioned in the word. I tutor my son 5 days a week and we just learned a few new spelling rules last week that made me think this same thing again. The Cry Baby rule...y says /i/ after a one syllable word but y says /e/ after a too syllable word but only at the end. The FLOSS rule that says you double a f,l,z,and s at the end of a single syllable word except for bus, yes and gas. And let’s not even talk about c is /s/ or /k/ if it is after a e,i or y. It is amazing that any kid just simply gets how to read without intensive instruction. I am so confused for our students.
DeleteAll three of you have great points! I constantly have to look back to make sure I am describing parts of speech, a word, or any other confusing rule from reading correctly. This is why math is my favorite subject and reading is my favorite hobby :) I would like clarification on the phonogram question as well. I wonder how teachers in international schools teach English? This may be something I would like to look in to in order to better understand the basics of teaching reading.
DeleteAmy- I thought the same thing...how in the world did I ever learn how to read and more importantly, how in the world am I going to take this information and teach someone else how to read?!? I do think with young children some may become overwhelmed if words like phonemes, diagraphs, and phonograms are thrown around they could become confused. I think it is our job to put them at ease and to take the instruction at their speed. Who knows, maybe if we use the terms from the start, they will better know what they are and what they mean all along and there wouldn't be as much confusion as there is with this "mature" non-traditional student! Ha!
DeleteChapter 5 is a good chapter on phonics. It gives the reader a lot of useful figures and Appendices to help teach these skills. It is hard to imagine just how many different sounds there are in the English language. As an adult, I just take it for granted when reading and writing. Students need to learn many different ways for one sound and so on. I particularly enjoyed some of the activities in the intervention section and plan to use a couple during tutoring. I have a sentence strip part on my Trifold and the Word Sorting with words activity would be great for that. Also I really liked the dictionary and index card ideas. Students could keep these with them at all times for something to look over as well as look back on to help them with words. There was one thing that confused me in the text. I thought Phonograms were another way of saying dipthongs and diagraphs, but according to the book a phonogram is essentially a rime? When I put Phonograms on my Trifold I did it with the expectation of using dipthongs and diagraphs on it, now I'm wondering if that's incorrect. Either way this chapter had some great activities and teaching ideas and I plan on using at least a couple of the activities in my tutoring, maybe more if needed.
ReplyDeleteThis would be a great source to use for tutoring activities, I agree! I also am very thankful I was raised with the English language. As stated, this is one of the hardest languages to learn with all the many different ways to present one sound. Yesterday while I was listening to my students while they were doing their assessments, such as the nonsense words, it was interesting to see them work through the nonsense words.
DeleteChapter 5 provided a beautiful overview of phonics. I can remember my Spanish teacher stating the English language is the most complicated language because we have so many different ways of pronouncing words, letter sounds, and word rules. I have to say I agree. I found it very interesting how the beginning of the chapter highlighted how important it is for an educator to be knowledgeable in phonics. I honestly do not remember learning phonics in school. Of course I remember learning the ABC's and vowels, etc. But I do not remember actually learning the sounds of a long or short vowel or phonograms. After taking the Reading and Language Arts I saw the importance of phonics. This chapter can be very beneficial to future teachers as I found it very helpful for myself. I particularly like the phonics glossary on page 104. I see how this could be very helpful when aiding young readers. Another useful chart was provided on page 106 addressing nine useful consonant generalizations. The intervention activities located at the end of the chapter were wonderful additional resource. I have no questions regarding the text but I will state again how useful this textbook will to add to my education library.
ReplyDeleteJade, I agree the university has done a very good job at stressing the importance of early phonemic awareness and the ideas of phonics. I think that when this information is expressed in this way students within the university should get an idea of how important these ideas are.
DeleteRicky
As an adult, I just take speaking and reading correctly for granted though it is a very complex system. I'm glad we have so many activities and ideas to choose from to help us when we are tutoring and then teaching.
DeleteTo start off this chapter gave the definitions of a phoneme and a grapheme. A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech sound, and then a grapheme is the written representation of the phoneme. For myself I've always had trouble writing out the graphemes of words and therefore feel like it would be challenging to children as well. I really appriciated the phonics gloassary at a glance on page 103 beacuse it really spelled out blends, clusters, and so on of words. I think phonics is very challenging to students that are ELL's and having familiar words for them that you can use as examples I feel would help them make sense of different sounds. The most helpful part of this chapter for me was the princpoes of phonics instruction. There are four:
ReplyDelete1. Base instruction on what students know.
2. Provide systematic instruction.
3. Use appropriate text.
4. Embed instruction in meaningful contexts.
I really liked the activities at the back of the chapter to include in your classroom. Word Walls is a big one that you see in classrooms today. I think that you can take that one step further and incorporate a math word wall or even have a book where students could make their own little wall of words and each week they write their spelling words init. I also really liked the word sorts and word family dictionary. I think that phonics and creativity are endless and teachers really can be creative with how they use and incorporate phonics into their classrooms. I'm excited to get my own room and set up my own word walls and more!
DeleteKendra, I liked your ideas on the second post. Word walls really have become a prevalent part of the classroom recently. This is one of those situations where it is better to embrace the situation as to fight it. Very good analysis.
DeleteRicky
Literacy text
ReplyDeleteChapter 5
So Chapter 5 reminded me a lot of a couple other text books that offered multiple ideas and really broke down the phonics rules. The good thing is that with all the different books I have seen regarding phonics they are all different Different ideas is just another for of ideas that are provided to the student. i really liked the phonics glossary at the start of the chapter. It was a compact nicely located form with the meanings and breakdown of different terminology. I also liked reading the different ways that students learn phonics. Giving information like that is like telling someone how ice cream is made. Once you know how to do it yourself you can always do it. The other thing I found really interesting was the articulation of the vowel sounds. That really made some things more clear about how Dr. Walizer during the spring semester would make the sounds so prominent when she said them. Really drawing out the low long O in bot. Seeing that picture made a lost of sense for me.
All of the activities that were in the book just fall in the category of more activities and information that can be used in the classroom. having more engaging activities can only make the teaching experience for students even better.
I too really liked how this chapter broke down the phonics rules. It is something that doesn't hurt to brush up on since we do this so regularly now and don't realize we do this automatically. When having to break it down, I get tripped up a bit. This chapter was a really good read and one that I will probably be looking at again.
Delete1.This chapter gives the teacher help in understanding how students learn phonics in three layers: alphabetic, pattern, and meaning. On page 109 there are four key principles of phonics instruction: (1) base instruction on what students know, (2) provide systematic instruction, (3) use appropriate texts, and (4) embed instruction in meaningful contexts. The most effective tool is using literature that is predictable, uses phonograms and includes rhyming words (110). There are a number of informal assessments given in this chapter. The rest of the chapter includes activities that help with initial consonant sounds, rhyme, word patterns, sounds within words, and words within words.
ReplyDelete2.I do not have any questions about this chapter.
3.I am realizing how complicated our language is and how children can be confused because of the complexities. There are many different areas to look at just in the area of phonics, but this chapter offers many activities to help us with that which I like. It also gives some websites to make it fun and more interesting for children.
4.In my first two tutoring sessions, as I gave the PQT assessment, I noticed that for some, connecting the correct phoneme to the correct grapheme was very difficult. I can tell it is terribly confusing to them at this point. I am anxious to get started so they can become confident and with repetition it should begin to make more sense to them.
Patti- I also made a connection from this chapter to my tutoring sessions. I am tutoring first grade and when I administered the nonsense word fluency assessment, I see how very important it is that children learn phonemic awareness. This is the basis for everything! In fact, one of my students has a hard time remembering how to write a "b" and a "d". I was aware of this on the enrollment form, yet when I went to assess, I noticed this student not only struggled with how you write it, she struggled with visually identifying a "b" and a "d" which led to struggling with the sound they make.
DeleteAfter reading Chapter 5 in our DeVries I have come up with two conclusions: 1) how in the world did I ever learn how to read the English language? 2) how in the world am I ever going to teach a child how to read the English language?
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with the beginning of the chapter that older students really don’t need phonics instruction…except for an ESOL student who does not have phonics instruction in their background knowledge. With an ESOL student, you need to go back to the basics and help them build the foundation that English speakers have been taught from the very beginning. This is why older English speaking children have this instruction in their background knowledge because it has been taught from the moment they enter school. It will be harder for an ESOL student, because as we learned in the previous chapter, some phonemes are not present in some native languages and they don’t know the sound and position of the mouth and tongue. All of this must be taught to them.
I feel that teacher modeling is so incredibly important. The more the teacher can model and get the children talking about patterns they see, initial sounds/ending sounds/medial sounds they hear, they better they will be saying these sounds and understanding them. For actually teaching phonics, I think it is also important to be as organized as possible and sequence the instruction. This is easier for the student to follow.
For me, the most important piece I got from the reading this week is the principles of phonics instruction. Principle 1 makes perfect sense to base the instruction on what the student knows. Beginning instruction at their level is crucial because you don’t want to teach or introduce a lesson that is way above, or way below, their developmental stage. Principle 2 goes back to teaching in sequence and this is supported by Principle 1 to find lessons and texts that are appropriate for their developmental stage. These first two principles then support Principle 3 to use the appropriate texts. Choosing texts that are not challenging at all for a child teaches them nothing. They will breeze through the instruction and be bored. Choosing text that is too hard will frustrate the child and will not be beneficial either. It is so important to choose text and material that allows the student to recognize words that they know as well as introduce new words that give some challenge. Principle 4 is to embed instruction in meaningful contexts. There are so many creative ways this can be done and what can really “hook” the student and get them interested in the lesson and attend.
Where I am a little lost I feel are the assessments. I think this comes from never doing this before and not only the diagnostics assessments, but formative assessments too. How do I see growth? How do I see if they are understand and getting the instruction? How do I know when to move on? I am sure this will become clearer as I gain more experience with it and become more comfortable.
Since I am tutoring 2 first grade girls, I found the activities for phonics at the end of the chapter very useful and easily integrated in my lessons.
LeAnn,
DeleteI agree with you that the principles are extremely important and like you said they make perfect sense in regards to phonics instruction. I thought the same about teacher modeling. There are so many fun and creative ways to conduct phonics instruction. I was also talking about the text discussion on the importance of phonics instruction with older ESL students in my blog. I am working with two ESL students in my tutoring sessions and am a little nervous about the assessment results showing weakness in certain skills because of their language barrier, or learning disabilities. I guess I am concerned because I don't want to mistake their needs as a language barrier if there is no language barrier there. Does that make sense? I am left wondering how a teacher really knows if an ESL student has special needs because of a learning disability, or if it is their language barrier that is creating the needs. Another concern that I had was exactly what you were asking. What kind of assessments should I do in my tutoring sessions to acknowledge student growth? Like you said how does the educator recognize when it is time to move on to other skills in their instruction? I am sure that all new educators have this concern. I enjoyed reading your blog. You have a lot of great ideas, and concerns as well.
Charelle
I learned so much about phonics in this lesson. Reading has always been a struggle for me and I think that’s why I want to teach k-1st graders. I want to help them learn to read before they reach that frustration point. If you were an early reader you can’t imagine the feeling of simply not being able to do it no matter how hard you work. I was 11 years old before it finally clicked for me and I own that to my grandmother that refused to give up on my crying butt.
ReplyDeleteI am amazed that children learn to read as fast as they do as I learn all the variations in our language. In looking at the table on page 107 it is clear to see how some kids get confused when reading. I get confused when spelling and I’m 30 years old. As teachers we need to understand that our children will get frustrated and that we need to be okay with this and ready to help them get over the hump.
I also really liked the checklist in figure 5.8 because it can get so crazy trying to keep everything straight. As teachers we need to keep clear records that we can look back to show progress as well as figure out what we need to do different in our next lesson. Over all I can see how phonics is a vital step in the reading progression and how teachers need to make sure that their students master each level of it as they move forward.
I too feel that phonics is very important at an early age. I feel that not enough phonics is taught at the early primary grade levels. I have see very little phonics being taught in my area grade school. It is really sad since there are many students in this school district that are struggling with reading. I think that this will solve some problems.
DeleteAfter reading chapter 5 in Devries I am realizing how very important it is to demonstrate student growth in phonics at an early age. Educators need to realize that one of the first reading skills that students need is to understand how the sounds of language create words. I am tutoring two ESL students in my tutoring sessions, and I have to agree with the text in saying that phonics instruction is needed in older ESL students that do not have that background knowledge in phonics. Otherwise, like the reading says, phonics instruction is not needed for older students. For ESL students it is important that they go back to the very basics, which begins with phonics. I believe this because different phonemes are used with other native languages, which are not used in the English language.
ReplyDeleteDuring my school years we never had phonics instruction in regards to decoding words, and encoding words. The school that I work for uses the Rebecca Sitton reading in lower grades, which deals a lot with decoding words. Before I started working as a Para educator 6 years ago, I had never seen decoding. If my child would have brought home a worksheet asking me how to “code” words, I wouldn’t have had a clue as to how to help them. Now that I know how decoding and encoding works, it is my opinion that it makes perfect sense that these phonics lessons are added into the learning.
Although I gained a lot of knowledge from reading this chapter I believe that the most important information that I got from this reading was how very important teacher modeling is in phonics instruction. In my mind a lot of the information that was given is often taught through a majority of teacher modeling. I am thinking that all of the phases that were discussed revolve around instruction that incorporates teacher modeling. The teaching instructions that you provide as the educator are what is ultimately going to determine how much learning takes place in your classroom. Another key topic that was talked about was the four key principles of phonics instruction. These are 1) basing instruction on what students know 2) providing systematic instruction 3) using appropriate texts, and 4) embedding instruction in meaningful contexts. This all revolves around teacher modeling.
The reading discusses assessments also. My concern or question would be what types of assessments can I administer to my students that I am tutoring in order to recognize student development, or growth?
I enjoyed reading the different “Intervention Strategy Activities that were given at the end of the chapter, and plan to use many of them in my lessons this next few months of tutoring.
Charelle,
DeleteI really like your comment that teacher modeling is one of the most important factors in teaching reading. This is one of the reasons that I am such a big fan of guided reading programs. Like you said, it can also be especially beneficial in teaching phonics.
Also, I have found myself wondering about how to assess the students weekly as well to measure growth. I know the summative assessments will tell us quite a bit about their growth over the semester, but weekly growth will be important in these weekly sessions as well.
Carissa Williams
This chapter was a very good overview of the phonic information that was presented to us in Reading and Language Arts. I really like how the text mentions that students learn letter sound relationships more effectively when they find books that they really enjoy and are able to talk about it. I think that is a very important topic to cover. We have to find books that interest the child or their interest is going to decline with reading. I have the hardest time trying to engage my son with reading. I buy him all the books that would interest him and I am not having any luck. I thought that it was a good idea to write the long a sounds with words that has the sound in them. I want to do this and keep with me. I have been explaining a sound and try really hard on the spot to think of a word that would demonstrate it. These cards would be a perfect reference for us. And as the book mentioned for students to do this with the book they are reading. I can already tell that this chapter is one that I will continue to reference as I continue to tutor and teach my sons.
ReplyDeleteI agree Hanna, it is interesting that if we find books they really enjoy and are able to talk about they will learn more effectively. My youngest son just started enjoying to read and he is in the seventh grade. He never was one to sit for very long. I am glad we read this chapter before I tutor my students this week it has really helped me.
DeleteAfter completing my assessments this week and finding that my 3rd graders will probably need help with phonics, this chapter was an excellent review for me. I had learned much of this last semester in Reading and Language Arts Methods, but it is always nice to get a refresher.
ReplyDeleteIn particular, I found the figures on page 107 and 108 about generalizations about consonants and vowels to be the most useful tool for my tutoring program. I think including a daily review of these generalizations will really help the students in learning how to sound out words. I'm even thinking about adding these to my tri-fold if I go with phonics as my content focus.
The other good resources that I found in this chapter were the activity ideas. I really like the idea of the word family word wall, which help with phonogram practice, as well as rhyming practice. I also like the Change Hen to Fox activity on page 121, as it reminds of of a word building activity that we do at the school already.
Overall, I think I will be using this chapter as a resource throughout the next few weeks of tutoring.
Carissa, This is definitely a great resource for tutoring this semester. I think you should absolutely add those vowel and consonant generalizations to your tri-fold, especially if you think your students will greatly benefit from them. Practicing and seeing them every session, will definitely help. I am also going to incorporate the word walls into my lessons and the various spellings for vowels and diphthongs. The tables are so user friendly, that it makes incorporating the ideas into lessons very easy.
DeleteThis chapter on phonics came at exactly the right time! My content focus for tutoring is going to be on phonics and this was a great refresher for me. The activities were very helpful as well, I have even decided to incorporate several into my lesson plans for next week. The text did tell us that students can get confused if introduced to all the jargon, and I'll be honest, I still sometimes get overwhelmed by it all too. So, I can only imagine how a student would feel. I found the phonics glossary to be a great tool in keeping everything organized for myself and I will probably refer back to it often.
ReplyDeleteI found figures 5.2 and 5.7 extremely helpful and they will help me throughout the semester when building my lesson plans. I also liked that it showed me what my second graders would be learning through phonics instruction and what they may have learned or mastered at the first grade level.
The debate over whether phonics instruction is needed for older students is still one that I am not comfortable taking a stand on. But, through discussions and meetings with some of the classmates, not all of their students have a solid phonics foundation even at grades three and four. Phonics instruction may be very beneficial to these students, and may even be a necessity in order to move on to other instructional areas.
I am also doing phonics! I thought the activities listed in chapter 5 were so helpful and different from anything that I had thought about using. Good luck in your sessions!
Delete1. Analysis of the reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteChapter 5 was about Phonics and I was excited about this chapter because that is what my content focus is for our tutoring sessions. At the beginning of the chapter I thought it was a great review of decoding and encoding and also consonants and vowels. I liked that I was able to get a refresher on how to teach those and the background information. The text talked about the four principles of phonics instruction. I was happy to see that I am on the right path when it comes to my tutoring sessions. Another things that I liked about chapter 5 were all the activity suggestions. I particulary liked the Personalized Word Family Dictionary. With the kids I have in tutoring I think this will be a great activity to use and to keep all of them focused and on task.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
The only thing I had a question on was the assessments. How to keep track of the students progress.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I was surprised to see at how much of phonics instruction that I remembered and have been putting into my lesson plans.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
On page 117 there is an example of a flip book. Now I didn't use a flip book but I have done something similar to this with one of my students in tutoring. She was struggling through the testing so after we were all done I just sat down with her and broke down each word just for practice. I covered the last part of the word and helped her read through them. It seemed to help!
Tammi,
DeleteI am doing phonics as well. So this is great for me too. I think phonics is very important for students to really understand. I too liked the different examples that were given in this textbook. This is defiently a book that I will be keeping in my professional library.
Tammi, I have a phonics flip book that I got from out reading and language arts methods class. It has already proven to be a great resource. If you need one, I bet you can find one on-line for free or I would bet that many of the individuals in this class have their copy that we downloaded from Dr. W. I am sad to say that I do not have mine due to the fact that I have a new computer (mine died in the middle of the semester last year)
DeleteI read this chapter before writing lesson 3 and 4 and I was also surprised how phonics focused I was despite my fluency goal. However, my students scored so low in several areas and fluency seems to be connected to all of the others.
I hope someone answers your question about scoring. For my goal I said that I wanted them to have a (whatever percentage) increase so that I could see movement over the course of the semester. However, it would be nice to know how others are addressing it.
My content focus is Phonics so this chapter could not have come at a better time! I need all the extra help I can get when working with my students because they are so low. I really like the different activities they suggest in the book and will use several of them like the Personalized Word Family Dictionary. I also felt that the material for ESL students was helpful and will be good to use for my lower students. I will use checklists a lot in my tutoring for daily assessments which will help me with my lesson plans. I think kids learn well when doing movement activities and rhyming activities. I have to be honest after my students did the Phonic Quick Test I felt like I needed tutoring in Phonics.
ReplyDeleteChristine-
DeleteI was also very excited when I found out what our chapter was on! Great timing, huh? My overall focus is on phonics as well. I also liked the different activities. I am glad that I have one more resource to reflect on when working with my group.
Chapter 5 was about phonics. Phonics are important for decoding words when reading. It is important for students to master the skill of decoding words so they can figure out words they don't know when reading.
ReplyDeleteI had no questions about the chapter.
I have seen when working in the past with ELL students how they have problems with decoding there words. Their problems are caused by the difference is language.
I can relate to this chapter with my own daughter. She is three right now. For some reason when she says lid she always says lip. She speaks very well but just this one word for some reason has been hard for her. I have been practicing with her to say lid right.
I find that very interesting about your daughter! However, I think it is sort of common for very young children to do things like that. I agree with you that phonics are important. I am really happy to be learning about phonics because it is my overall unit focus.
Delete1. Analysis of the reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteChapter five of the textbook Literacy Assessment & Intervention by B. Devries discusses the importance of phonics which the textbook states “reading researchers and educators agree that phonics is important for readers as they attempt to understand how the sounds of language create words (Devries, 102). It is important to understand the sounds that make the words in order to understand the word as a whole. The first part of the text discussed the definition of phonemes and graphemes. This chapter of the textbook also discusses what teachers should know which according to the textbook includes “interpret and respond to readers’ errors, provide clear and simple examples for decoding and spelling, organize and sequence instruction, explain spelling patterns, integrate language instruction” (Devries, 104). If the teacher can understand these concepts then they are better able to help students that may be struggling with reading. This chapter also discusses the “four key principles of phonics instruction” (Devries, 109).
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
I did not have any question in this chapter of the textbook.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I really liked the chart on page 103 and 104 of the textbook that gave the “phonics glossary at a glance” (Devries, 103- 104). This chapter of the textbook gave be several different ways that I can help students in the classroom learn phonics which included finding patterns for the students to recognize, “encode words”, and discuss the words with the students to help them understand (Devries, 105). Helping the students learn phonics seems through patterns was a very important concept in this chapter.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
I think that all the key principles of phonemic instruction is important but the one that seemed to stick out to me and remind me of me previous experience was principle 4 which mentioned that the reading should be meaningful and the students should enjoy it. I remember I always had to read books that I did not enjoy therefore I did not want to read them. The class would spend a lot of time reading these long chapter books, that I already struggled with because of my reading disability but on top of that did not want to read because they were not interesting. These chapter books that we read in class would revolve around everything that we did in language arts and we were not able to pick what we liked or wanted to read. I did not know the joy of reading this way, which did not help me improve my reading skills.
Chapter five was over phonics. I was especially happy to be covering this chapter because phonics is the overall unit focus in my lessons. I liked the section over what teachers should know. This is important because it helps us understand the information about phonics a little more. We talked a lot about phonics in Reading and Language Arts methods. I was really happy to read the section about vowels, because that is what I am working on in my third and fourth lessons. However, it was good to see it all again and I learned a lot from this chapter.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a lot of questions about the assigned reading. However, I got to thinking about the “Principles of phonics instruction” section on page 109. In this section it talks about the four key principles that underlie phonics instruction. The very first one is to base instruction on what students know. When we have our own class, there is a good chance (especially at upper elementary grades) that we will have students at different reading levels that are all over the place. I want to know some of the common areas we start instruction for lower-level students and higher-level students.
I can relate to phonics mostly through classes I have taken. I really love the phonics dance we learned. I had never heard of it before, and I look forward to using it in my group and in my classroom.
I am also using phonics as my content focus. I thought you question about base instruction in the upper grades was great, I also was wondering this. It would be helpful to have this addressed in class. I also will be using the phonics dance as a review this week in my tutoring sessions. It sounds like the chapter was a great review for you! Have a good week.
DeleteI just did that thing happen to me that we all dread. That moment that all of us have done at least once, that dreaded moment when you realize that you have lost all of the post you have been typing when you were almost complete with it. Arrggg.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was once that met me with a bit of fear. I was a bit nervous because I had a really hard time with it in Dr. W's methods class. However, I found that, much like all of you, the review could not have come at a better time. I read this chapter before writing my lessons 3 and 4 and found that it greatly influenced my lesson plans. While my content focus is fluency I recognize that my students have low phonics skills and low comprehension. Mixing these three will only prove to make them better readers. I particularly liked the section on encoding as it will give me some ways to help my students. I liked that this chapter provided us with activities and it reminded me of some of my texts from R&LA Methods that might be helpful as I write more lesson plans this semester. I did not have any questions about the text but can say that i am grateful that this chapter helped to reduce my anxiety about cooking this week.
One thing to add: I was wondering if anyone wished they had someone to do the suggested lesson activities on/with while reading this text. these activates seems so very doable and fun which was great to see. I absolutely plan to use some of them!
DeleteJessica,
DeleteI suggest typing it into a Word Document before posting. This way you never lose your information :-)
Chapter Five Blog
ReplyDeleteZoë Greenemeyer
After determining that phonics will be my focus for my tutoring session the chapter reading for this week was very educational. I have found that the students I am tutoring have difficulty with the ability to distinguish oddity and the information on this subject was very helpful. I also thought that the activities within the chapter provided insight into how I can provide the strategies to students in a fun way. I can remember jump rope jingles from when I was a kid and did not realize there would be a connection to phonics.
I thought it was fascinating to learn that other languages have unique phonemes and have different phoneme placement. In the school my daughter attends they teach Spanish starting in kindergarten, I will be interested to know how the correlate the teaching of English and Spanish and if students ever face confusion.
Thank you all for your posts and replies. Again, in order to prevent loss of points on your grade, please follow the rubric as outlined in your syllabus! Pay particular attention to the first question being asked of you to provide - Analysis of the Text/Reading!
ReplyDeleteChrista