Effective Early Literacy Instruction

Motivation To Read Word Identification Assessment Parents Digital Literacy Effective Early Literacy Instruction Writing Guided Reading Fluency ...
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Motivation To Read Word Identification

Assessment

Parents

Digital Literacy

Effective Early Literacy Instruction

Writing

Guided Reading

Fluency

Vocabulary Comprehension

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Motivating Children to Read Research

Classroom Practice

MOTIVATING CHILDREN TO READ WITH PICTUREBOOKS

There is strong evidence to show that reading aloud a range of text genres on a daily basis is a key component of an effective early literacy instructional programme. In the early stages of learning to read children may need to be read to very frequently, at least two or three times a day. Children who are read to regularly are acquiring much of the knowledge they need to enable them to become independent readers such as: • • • • •

Motivating Children to Read

Knowledge of the tunes and patterns of written language Knowledge of the language of books Knowledge of story structures Familiarity with the language and structure of non-fiction text Delight in the sounds of words

Teachers who engage in Shared Reading of big books, picture books, poems, traditional tales and the creation of a range of text genres through Shared Writing promote children’s literacy development in a meaningful manner, where reading and writing are seen as reciprocal processes. This approach provides a foundation for children’s early reading and writing development with the support of knowledgeable teachers. Children need the opportunity for self-selection of text and to engage in approximate reading with peers or individually as they increasingly interact with a range of text. This has implications for the development of appropriately stocked classroom libraries and the following selection of picture books provides a snapshot of the range and quality of fiction / non-fiction text.

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Llama Llama Misses Mama Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama Mad at Mama Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama Home With Mama Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama Time to Share Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama Red Pyjama Anna Dewdney

A Piece of Cake Murphy, Jil

Can’t You Sleep Little Bear Waddell, Martin

The Big Big Sea Waddell, Martin

Snow Music Perkins, Lynne Rae

Grandfather Twilight Berger, Barbara

The Snowy Day Keats, Ezra Jack

Not Now Bernard Mc Kee, David

Peace at Last Murphy, Jil

Emma’s Lamb Lewis, Kim

Five Minutes Peace Murphy, Jil

Floss Lewis, Kim

First Snow Lewis, Kim

The Shepherd Boy Lewis, Kim

Follow the Swallow Donaldson, Julia

The Gruffalo Donaldson, Julia

The Gruffalo’s Child Donaldson, Julia

The Snail and the Whale Donaldson, Julia

Room on the Broom Donaldson, Julia

Tiddler Donaldson, Julia

The Smartest Giant in Town Donaldson, Julia

Where the Wild Things Are Sendak, Maurice

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt Oxenbury, Helen

Something Beautiful Wyeth, Sharon Dennis

Night in the Country Rylant, Cynthia

Peepo Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

Each Peach Pear Plum Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

The Jolly Postman Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

Burglar Bil Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

Funnybones Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

Cops and Robbers Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

It Was A Dark and Starry Night Ahlberg, Janet and Allan

Dogger Hughes, Shirley

The Alfie Collection Hughes, Shirley

The Tiger Who Came to Tea Kerr, Judith

Dear Zoo Campbell, Rod

It’s Mine Campbell, Rod

I Won’t Bite Campbell, Rod

Tatty Ratty Cooper, Helen

Pumpkin Soup Cooper, Helen

The Bear Under the Stairs Cooper, Helen

Who’s Been Sleeping in my Porridge Mc Naughton, Colin

Are You There Baby Bear? Walters, Catherine

Bat Loves the Night Davies, Nicola

Big Blue Whale Davies, Nicola

Dream Weaver Ice Bear London, Jonathan Davies, Nicola

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White Owl, Barn Owl Davies, Nicola

Ape Jenkins, Martin

Motivating Children to Read Assessment For Learning

• • • • • • •

Does the class teacher provide a classroom environment where children are motivated to engage with books? Is the classroom library well stocked and regularly updated with high quality fiction and non-fiction texts? Are the books presented in an inviting and appealing manner? Are children provided with opportunities to self-select and browse through the books each day? Are children encouraged to take home books each day? Have children the opportunity to discuss books with peers each day in an appropriately furnished reading corner? Does the class teacher read and discuss books with the children each day?

Word Identification Research Children learn to read words incrementally based on their knowledge of the alphabetic principle. Frith’s model of word reading development describes these stages as:

Pre-Alphabetic

Partial-Alphabetic Full Alphabetic

Consolidated Alphabetic Children’s ability to apply the alphabetic principle in the process of word recognition is greatly enhanced by effective systematic instruction in phonological awareness training, phonic knowledge and engaging in meaningful emergent writing and reading activities in the infant classroom. Phonological Awareness can be defined as a sensitivity to the sounds of words. It is the ability to hear the sounds of words in the correct sequence and to segment, count, blend and manipulate them. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that changes the meaning of a spoken word. Phonics instruction teaches children the relationship between the letters (graphemes) of written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language.

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• Phonemic awareness is an oral / aural skill but not a bi-product of oral language acquisition • Phonemic awareness is the insight that every spoken word can be conceived as a sequence of phonemes • Because phonemes are the units of sound represented by the letters of an alphabet, an awareness of phonemes is key to understanding the logic of the alphabetic principle and thus to learning phonics and spelling • Phonemic Awareness can be taught systematically • Development can be facilitated by direct instructional activities • Identification and manipulation of sounds within words using counters and Elkonin boxes facilitates children’s ability to segment and blend phonemes

• Enables potentially weaker readers to be identified at an early stage • Not a one shot inoculation against reading failure, but an essential component of effective early literacy instruction • The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn and use the alphabetic principle – the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds

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Word Identification • Knowledge of these relationships helps children to recognize familiar words accurately and automatically and provides children with a systematic approach to decoding unfamiliar words • Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is an essential component of effective early literacy instruction • Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is most effective when introduced early • Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is particularly beneficial for children who experience difficulty in learning to read and who are at risk for developing future reading problems • Systematic and explicit phonics instruction must not be an end in itself but linked with children’s early reading and writing experiences in meaningful settings • Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children’s word recognition, spelling and reading comprehension

Word Identification Assessment For Learning

• • •

Classroom Practice

• •

• • •

SIGHT VOCABULARY

• In the Pre-Alphabetic phase children rely on idiosyncratic visual cues within words in order to recognize words • Words not amenable to phonic analysis need to be learned by sight – several lists of basic sight vocabulary • Over – reliance on sight vocabulary as a method of word recognition in the early stages leaves children without a systematic word retrieval system

Is there evidence of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics instruction in the school policy for literacy development, particularly in the early years? Are children made aware of the sounds of words in an enjoyable manner through experience with rhymes, jingles and picture books focusing on play with words and language? Is the instruction systematic and progressive leading the children from knowledge of syllables to onset/rime to phonemic awareness? Is there a scheme to support the instruction such Sounds Abound / Earobics / Sound Linkage? Is the work on phonemic awareness linked to shared / emergent writing? Is there evidence of systematic phonics instruction using an appropriate phonics scheme to promote children’s knowledge of the alphabetic principle? Does the reading material enable children to apply the phonic knowledge they have acquired or is it based on recognition of sight vocabulary? Are children encouraged to apply a range of word identification strategies including, phonic knowledge, letter patterns and context cues in the process of word recognition?

LETTER PATTERNS

• Children’s word identification can be enhanced by making children aware of commonly occurring letter patterns in words (e.g. day; play etc.) • This knowledge can be enhanced through the use of concrete materials such as magnetic letters, etc.

USING CONTEXT CUES

• Children are enabled to identify words using the context by reading forward to end of the sentence and then back tracking and using phonic knowledge to aid word recognition

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Emergent Writing

Emergent Writing PRE-PHONETIC

Research Emergent Writing develops from an instructional approach to teaching based on the Gradual Release of Responsibility from teacher to children. There are three phases in this approach, namely:

• • • • • •

Composes simple text about personally significant topics Children aware that writing conveys a constant message Relies mostly on dominant consonants while spelling Evidence of left to right sequential order of letters within words Writing very much a representation of the child’s spoken representation of words Writing on one continuous line with no evidence of space for words

• Modelled • Scaffolded • Independent In the first phase the children are provided with multiple opportunities to observe the teacher model the writing process in a range of meaningful settings. The teacher explicitly models the organisation of the ideas in the planning process and the translation of these ideas to writing by linking spoken sounds (phonemes) to written letters (graphemes). This task is greatly facilitated if children are receiving explicit systematic instruction in phonemic awareness training. The next stage in the process is Shared Writing where teacher and children collaborate in the construction of text. This scaffolding phase of instruction enables the children to select text genres and to construct a range of text with the teacher acting as facilitator.

Classroom Practice At the independent phase children begin the emergent writing phase. There are three distinct phases to this stage of development. • • •

Pre-Communicative Pre-Phonetic Phonetic

PRE-COMMUNICATIVE

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PHONETIC • Begin to experiment with a range of text types and language structures as modelled for them • Can increasingly produce coherent messages by their growing capacity to organize words into sentences • Base vocabulary of high frequency words • Demonstrate a range of strategies when attempting to spell unfamiliar words ∗ Almost perfect match between letter and sound • Spelling may be a representation of the child’s hearing or articulation

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Emergent Writing Assessment For Learning

• • • •

Is the writing process modelled for children in meaningful settings? Have the children received multiple opportunities across the curriculum to engage in shared writing? Is the text genre modelled for the children prior to engaging in independent writing? Is the modelled / shared / independent writing phase supported by explicit systematic instruction in phonemic awareness?

Promoting Children’s Oral Reading Fluency Development Research Reading fluency is a characteristic of reading that occurs when readers’ cognitive and linguistic systems are developed to the extent, that they can read with sufficient accuracy and rate to allow for understanding of text and reflect its prosodic features (Rasinski, 2011:287) •

Reciprocal relationship between fluency and word recognition



Not an end in itself, but provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension as fluent readers link ideas in the text with their prior knowledge



Fluency develops gradually over considerable time and through substantial practice



Readers can be taught to read with expression and increase their reading rate



Fluency varies depending on text complexity, vocabulary knowledge and word recognition capacity

Classroom Practice

EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE Assisted Reading Rereading

Wide Reading

ASSISTED READING • Provides the reader with support while building fluency • Opportunity to scaffold students’ learning • Enjoyable, non-threatening way to ensure that all children read with accuracy, speed and expression • Particularly helpful for students for whom English is an additional language

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Promoting Children’s Oral Reading Fluency Development Assisted Reading

APPROPRIATE TEXT

Promoting Children’s Oral Reading Fluency Development READER’S THEATRE

TEACHING APPROACHES Reading in unison

Big books

Picture books

Echo reading

Poems

Seesaw Reading

Songs

– the teacher and the children alternate reading sentences

Prayers Raps

Cumulative reading

Digital text

– one group reads the first line. A second group joins in for the next line, then a third etc.

Paired Reading

REREADING • Rereading is a strategy used to develop rapid, fluent, oral reading. • When children repeat their reading, their amount of word recognition error decreases, their reading speed increases and their oral reading expression improves (Samuels, 2002)

Assessment For Learning

• • • •

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Does the teacher provide children with a model of good practice when reading a range of text genre to the class? Are children provided with multiple opportunities to scaffold their early reading development through the shared enjoyable nature of assisted reading practices? Are children provided with opportunities to engage in self selected reading activities each day? Are the children encouraged to progress from word by word reading to:

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Read mostly in large meaningful phrases? Read with expression? Attend consistently to punctuation?

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Supporting Children’s Vocabulary Development

Classroom Practice

Research

• • • • • •

Supporting Children’s Vocabulary Development

Vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and first grade is a significant predictor of reading comprehension in the middle and secondary grades Teaching vocabulary impacts positively on word identification and comprehension Growing up in poverty can seriously restrict the vocabulary children learn before beginning school and make attaining an adequate vocabulary a very challenging task Learning English vocabulary is one of the most crucial tasks for English Language Learners Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language, but also require explicit instruction to promote their vocabulary development Words can be known at various levels and fully learning a word is a multifaceted task

Beck, McKeown&Kucan (2002) identify five levels of word knowledge • No knowledge • General sense, such as knowing that mendacious has a negative connotation • Narrow, context bound knowledge, such as knowing that a radiant bride is a beautifully smiling happy one, but unable to apply radiant to a diverse range of different contexts • Having knowledge of a word but not being able to recall it readily enough to apply it in appropriate situations • Rich, decontextualised knowledge of a word’s meaning, its relationship to other words, and its extension to metaphorical uses, such as understanding what someone is doing when they are devouring a book.

FOUR VOCABULARIES

EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICE (GRAVES, 2006) •

Providing Frequent, Varied and Extensive Language Experiences



Teaching Individual Words



Teaching Word Learning Strategies



Fostering Word Consciousness Vocabulary instruction is most effective when learners are given both definitional and contextual information, when learners actively process the new word meanings and when they experience multiple encounters with words

Assessment For Learning

• • •

Receptive Oral • Words we understand when we hear them

Receptive Written • Words we understand when we read them

Expressive Oral

• • • • •

• Words used in conversation

Expressive Written



• Words used when writing

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Are children provided with opportunities to promote their oral language development through engagement in purposeful activities in pairs and groups through play? Have children the opportunity to listen to a range of texts with rich vocabulary across the curriculum throughout the school day? Are children provided with multiple opportunities to develop response to text through paired, group and whole class discussion? Are children provided with opportunities to discuss their visual / written response to text? Is there evidence of appropriately challenging vocabulary development throughout the school day, where key concept vocabulary across the curriculum is explicitly taught? What provision is being made to ensure that newly acquired vocabulary is being consolidated in the children’s lexicons? Are the children encouraged to appreciate the aesthetic dimension of language through exposure to high quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts? Are parents provided with booklists / websites / apps to enable them to support the work of the school in the promotion of their children’s early literacy development? Is there evidence of the promotion of individual reading to promote vocabulary development?

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Comprehension Strategy Instruction Research

Comprehension Strategy Instruction Classroom Practice

• Comprehension instruction can and should occur from the earliest years • Children need to be both code breakers and meaning makers • Younger and less experienced readers are not always able to detect the teacher’s subtle cues • They benefit from direct instruction of the cognitive processes a successful reader em ploys through the teacher thinking aloud. • Such effective instruction involves a Gradual Release of Responsibility, characterised by cycles of:

In their 2010 report, Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade, the IES issued 5 key recommendations: 1. Teach students how to use reading comprehension strategies 2. Teach students to identify and use the text’s organisational structure to comprehend, learn and remember content 3. Guide students through focused, high-quality discussion on the meaning of the text 4. Select texts purposefully to support comprehension development 5. Establish an engaging and motivating context in which to teach reading comprehension

As part of a whole school approach to comprehension, a spiral approach to strategy instruction should begin at infant level, with breadth and depth being added throughout the primary years. Such an approach may be structured as follows:

Junior Infants • Prediction • Making Connections • Visualisation

Senior Infants • Comprehension Process Motions (CPM) have been shown to aid the independent application of strategies to a new text (Block et al., 2008), being thought to be most beneficial for younger pupils. • Comprehension strategies must always be considered as part of the process of interpreting a text and not become the end product.

• As above • Questioning

First and Second Class • As above • Monitoring Comprehension (Declunking and Clarifying)

CPM FOR PREDICTION 16

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Comprehension Strategy Instruction Pupils must be provided with the opportunity to share their understanding of and thoughts on the text before, during and afterreading. As pupils become more adept at strategic reading, there will be a shift from teacher-led to pupil-led discussion. Rather than seeking known information, teacher questioning may prompt pupils to consider other interpretations or encourage higher order thinking. It may also be used as a scaffolding tool to model how contributions can be extended. It is important that such dialogue allows for pupils to respond to each other, rather than following a teacher-child-teacher format. The use of CPMs also allows pupils to independently apply comprehension strategies, not only during the reading process, but across all curricular areas.

GRADUAL RELEASE OF RESPONSIBILITY MODEL Central to the success of explicit strategy instruction is the selection of appropriate literature. High quality texts ensure not only pupils’ engagement, but also provides them with the opportunity to witness authentic strategy use, understand the purpose for applying the strategy and all allows for repeated opportunities to appreciate strategic reading.

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Comprehension Strategy Instruction Assessment For Learning Role of Teacher: • The teacher has selected a text appropriate for the ability and interest level of the pupils and also for the nature of the CSI being provided • The language of the teacher is clear, concise, consistent and appropriate for the ability of the pupils. • The teacher explicitly explains what the strategy is, how and when it is used, and finally why it is applied. • The teacher adapts the explanation to suit the individual needs of the pupils and is responsive to pupil’s contributions • The teacher is sharing the cognitive activities of a good reader with the pupils through thinking aloud. • The teacher scaffolds pupils’ application of strategies where necessary, allowing for opportunities to independently application where appropriate. • Teacher questioning extends pupil thinking or presents opportunities for higher order thinking, rather than seeking known information • Multiple interpretations of the text are explored and valued • The teacher facilitates a class discussion of the text by linking pupils’ ideas and al lowing pupils opportunities to respond to each other. • Teacher feedback is specific, praising the process of reasoning the pupils engaged in, rather than the conclusions reached Pupil Involvement: • The pupils are interested, engaged and actively involved in the interpretation of the text • The pupils can use the language appropriate to specific strategies and under stand its purpose • The pupils can relate the text to their own life and experiences • The pupils can choose from a range of strategies and discuss their thought process, providing a rationale for their thinking • The pupils can direct the teacher’s attention to specific features and direct the flow of the conversation • The pupils can engage with and respond to the ideas of their peers – expanding on the ideas of others in addition to presenting alternative view points • The pupils understand that multiple interpretations of text are possible • The pupils demonstrate higher order thinking in their discussion of the text • The pupils demonstrate strategic thinking across other curricular areas

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Guided Reading Research • • • • •

Assessment For Learning

Guided reading is an essential component of a balanced integrated programme of early reading instruction Successful acquisition of reading in the early years is the cornerstone on which knowledge, self-esteem and future educational opportunities are built As children enter school with varying levels of proficiency in the acquisition of literacy, it is necessary to accommodate the needs of all children through the use of flexible and dynamic groups It is the responsibility of teachers to determine the developmental needs of each child in the beginning reading process and to provide instruction which enables children to progress at their individual levels Differentiated instruction provides research based instructional approaches, including alphabetic knowledge, phonemic awareness training, phonic knowledge in context, print related knowledge, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension to support children’s progress from emergent to independent reading stages

Classroom Practice

• • • • • • • • •

Guided Reading

• • • • • • •

What type of text is provided to support children’s early reading instruction – basal reader / levelled text? Are children reading at an independent (98-100% accuracy), instructional (93-97% accuracy) or frustration (below 93% accuracy) level? Does the text enable children to apply a range of word identification strategies or is it over-reliant on sight vocabulary knowledge as a basis for word recognition? Are the children enabled to apply phonic cues in the promotion of fluent and accurate word identification? Is there a focus to the guided reading session such as word identification, fluency, vocabulary or comprehension or are the children reading the text in a round robin manner? If the children are engaged in reading levelled text in differentiated ability groups, how effective and focused are the different work stations to which the groups rotate? How effectively does the guided reading instruction cohere with the other elements of the literacy programme?

Assessment is ongoing and directly linked to instruction Levelled text enables children to consistently read at a success level (i.e.95% accuracy) Texts levelled according to support from illustrations, repetitive language patterns, oral language patterns, phonic complexity, familiarity of theme / content, sentence structure, complexity of story line and vocabulary Each reading lesson begins with rereading a previously read text and ends with the introduction and reading of a new book Appropriately pacing children through increasingly difficult reading material is crucial to children’s development Multiple opportunities to engage in successful reading experiences each day Greater volume and range of text encountered each week Parental involvement enables parents to observe children’s progress on a daily basis and provides added motivation for children and parents Literacy Centres – Reading groups; phonemic awareness training; writing; word identification centre; listening centre; fluency training;

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