Eventually, everyone who learns to read makes the jump. The jump is to
move from a more phonically based understanding of words to "reading"
to "reading fluency." It is getting to this stage that I strive for
every year. However, to get to fluency, most students must pass through
a period of time where they recognize some words without being able to
sound out the words phonetically.
The first sight words my
students learn are their names. The first hurdle is usually getting
them to move beyond the first letter of their name. This year might be
a little harder. I have 5 students with names that start with the
letter T, 4 with J, 4 with the letter D, and all the rest are single
letters. So this year it is going to be vitally important to get those
lower case letters out in the open quickly. I usually teach them at the
same time and then when we start to discriminate more, we talk about
how some Mama letters look like their babies and some don't, just like
people.
Recognizing sight words, just like recognizing letters,
is an act of memorization. In order to teach memorization with 4
year-olds, you have to repeat, repeat, repeat. This is not the same as
"drill, baby drill." Repeating recognition activities with student
names through out the day, in various contexts, provides repetition
without drilling it into children. Some ways to use student names
include small group activities, circle time activities, and intake
procedures, as well as incorporating student's names into word walls
and journal writing. Using student's written names during recall time is fun for kids and accomplishes the
goal of multiple opportunities for mastery.
Once children
have their names in their pockets it is easier to introduce other sight
words. In talking with Kindergarten teachers, I have been told that the
dolche words are a great place to start. Dolche words are high frequency words that are used in most reading. A pre-k list includes words like:
a
and
away
big
blue
can
come
down
find
for
funny
go
help
here
I
in
is
it
jump
little
look
make
me
my
not
one
play
red
run
said
see
the
three
to
two
up
we
where
yellow
you
Some of the ways I have used these words include highlighting them in online activities like the Zac the Rat on Starfall.com
. Kids love when they start to know the words before the teacher reads
them. I also use them in context while reading books, highlighting the
word "the" several times and letting kids know they just have to
memorize it helps promote students feelings of efficacy while they
engage with new texts.
My last post focused on an important aspect of the Kindergarten curriculum known as Reader’s Workshop. As one of the summer school teachers for our pre-kindergarten students, I am also spending two days of our week on Writer’s Workshop.
On Tuesday and Thursday, our main focus is on writing. Writer’s Workshop allows our students to learn basic skills and get practical experience with writing. On Tuesday, my co-teacher gave a mini lesson on writing. Our class discussed how and why we use a pencil when we write and how to use our writing folders. Each student has a folder with a “stop” side and a “keep going” side. When a student thinks they have done all the work they can on a story, it is kept on the “stop” side until the final editing and publishing days. During their work time, about half of the students wanted to be finished after drawing one simple picture. As we conference with each student, we helped them think about their favorite story or book. Does that have just one picture or one thought? Usually stories have a beginning, middle and an end. Most of our students flourished! Several were even using beginning sounds to try spelling words for their stories. I was thrilled!
On Thursday, I led a mini lesson that asked the important question: Why do writers write? Again, we put together a very nice list.
Writer write…
Because they have something to say
Because they read things
Because they want to
Because they are illustrators and writers
Because they want to teach someone something
Because it is fun
Because they are funny
As a pre-kindergarten teacher it is always a mix of emotions when Kindergarten rolls around. I will miss the students – each of their idiosyncrasies has a specific spot in my heart. However, it is great to be able to say with confidence that they are ready. Those students who have had the opportunity to experience early childhood education have a solid foundation. Not only are they able to sound out words because they know letters and letter sounds, but they have learned HOW to do school. They have practiced learning in large groups. They have tested their endurance and perseverance and have prevailed. Most importantly, they have developed positive relationships with adults and peers and have sparked an excitement for learning. What could be better than that?
Bridges to Kindergarten, my summer school class, has finished week one of three! We are already on the road to a seamless transition from pre-kindergarten to Kindergarten.
In our summer class we are introducing key components of the Kindergarten curriculum in small ways. Monday and Wednesday are devoted to Reader’s Workshop. This week we discussed how we care for our books and what good readers do. My coordinating teacher presented a mini lesson on book care. She encouraged students to notice what her body looks like, sounds like and feels like when she is reading a book. They also discussed where the books are stored in our classroom and why. I love watching four and five year olds really take on responsibility of themselves and our classroom materials. On Wednesday I posted a question to our class: “What do good readers do?” Our list was plentiful.
Good readers:
read because they like to
read because they want to learn something
read because they like books
read when they want to rest
read when they want to laugh
read because they wrote it
read because their mom and dad do
read because there are boxes of books
read because there are Sponge Bob books
Each student spent 15 minutes reading. They are allowed to read as many books as they would like as many times as they would like but they “keep reading until we stop!” It is fun to watch some students get a slow start, but then not want to put their books away! After our free reading time students are invited to share their favorite book with the class. This non-threatening sharing opportunity helps students become comfortable with sharing their work with others – an important social and academic skill.
Writer’s Workshop is another key component to our district’s kindergarten curriculum. Look for more information about Writer’s Workshop in my next post.
I have written often here about the benefits of technology and Web 2.0 elements in the early childhood classroom. Recently I’ve been thinking about literacy and how our teaching methods also need to change to keep up with the pace of 21st century learning. If we expose our students to the latest technology through our teaching of other types of curriculum, shouldn’t the same be true for literacy instruction? The same emphasis should be placed on advancing our literacy instruction that has been placed on technology; in fact, the two should go hand in hand.
Why then, are so many pre-k programs still clinging to antiquated literacy approaches such as letter of the week? Often it’s not the teacher who is choosing to use letter of the week, it’s the pre-k program that is mandating it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again;
If there are 36 weeks in a school year and 26 weeks are spent teaching the letters one at a time, valuable learning time is wasted.
I’m puzzled why so many pre-k programs across the US, both public and private, still use the letter of the week method as their main source of literacy instruction when research has shown it to be ineffective at best. It’s time we shed this outdated method in favor of more research based best practices to give our students the best literacy instruction.
Some of the arguments for leaving letter of the week behind are:
The students who struggle the most with learning the letters are the ones who are least helped by teaching letters in isolation.
Young children need something to help them make connections - isolating letters doesn't do that.
Teaching with letter of the week slows readers down, yet it's too fast for others, it doesn't meet the needs of all learners and there is no room for differentiation.
It is more meaningful to introduce letters as they become meaningful to the students, they will retain more this way.
Children who are taught letters in isolation often have difficulty placing that information into literacy activities (Wood and McLeMore, 2001)
Removing letters from their meaningful context removes the meaning and purpose from the letter.
In place of letter of the week pre-k teachers should embrace best practices such as:
Interactive Writing
Writing Workshop
Reading Workshop
Teaching letters through fun student name activities
Incorporating environmental print
Implementing name/word walls
Phonemic awareness
When best practices are used in the pre-k classroom the results are phenomenal. Students learn their letters and letter sounds much more quickly and thus there is more time to focus on other equally important skills such as phonemic awareness and concepts of print. By the end of the year in my full-day pre-k classroom most of my students:
Recognize all upper and lowercase letters
Know all letter sounds
Can identify characters, setting, events, problems, and solutions in any given book.
Can make inferences and predictions in any given book using the skills they have learned in reading workshop.
Can identify the beginning, middle, and end of any given story.
Can write stories with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
Can write a story that makes sense and uses phonetic spelling- or the sounds they hear in the words.
Can identify the basic conventions of print and use them in their writing. For example; their writing reads from left to right, they use spaces between words, and they use punctuation such as periods, question marks, and exclamation points.
All of this has been accomplished in very developmentally appropriate, engaging, and fun ways.
I can only surmise that teachers and programs that still use letter of the week do so because it provides a clear and easy path to follow- start with A and end with Z. It’s easy for administrators to hold teachers accountable when they know what letter is supposed to be taught when. It’s also easy for parents to know what their child is learning when the letters are introduced one at a time. However, it’s not our job as teachers to do what is easy, it’s our job to what is best for our students. We must educate parents and administrators about the best practices and why they are more beneficial.
Each year, in honor of Dr. Suess’ birthday, we spend time reading, listening and interacting with many of his books. Just this past week, we listened to “Green Eggs and Ham” on a recording that has a catchy beat and fun voices as a part of the narration. It is so fun to watch my group of students as they giggle and tap their toes while I flip the pages. It is amazing how one story can provide so many opportunities for learning! As the teacher you are able to use great literature as a springboard for learning.
After reading “Green Eggs and Ham,” we made predictions. Twelve out of seventeen students said they would not like green eggs and ham. One day in class we made green eggs for a snack. We had to use teamwork, healthy living skills (washing hands, keeping hands out of mouth and nose, coughing into sleeve), measuring skills, communication skills and a lot of patience! When our snack was ready, we encouraged each other to try at least one bite to see if our predictions were right.. The result was almost the opposite! Eleven out of seventeen did like green eggs!
Dr. Seuss helped us talk about directional words. This past week we worked on putting green eggs on the boat, in the house, on the train, etc. We even added some of our own! Would you like them under a log? Would you like them with a hog? Would you like them next to a pool? Would you like them outside a pool?
Dr. Seuss’ books have great rhymes! Rhyming is a harder concept for my students. It is not that they can’t recite a poem or song that contains rhymes. Rather, given a word, they are not able to consistently come up with a word that rhymes. Part of this is developmental, but another huge piece is language-based. Some of my students do not have the English vocabulary to formulate words that sound alike. “Green Eggs and Ham,” “Hop on Pop,” “The Cat and the Hat,” and many others help us hear rhymes and remind us it is fun to make up new words too!
Although he may be over 100 years old, Dr. Seuss is still bringing smiles and a great deal of learning to people of all ages!
One thing I did not include in my recent Web 2.0 entry was digital storytelling - I was saving the best for last! Digital storytelling incorporates a variety of multimedia such as audio narration, music, video, and still images to tell a story. See my example above.
Digital storytelling has taken the educational world by storm, due in part to the power it has to engage and motivate the learner. Digital storytelling can also be used by any age group from pre-k to college level. Young children can be involved in the making of a digital story in a variety of ways, such as taking photographs with a digital camera, acting out scenes, drawing pictures and scanning the images, and narrating the story with their own words. When the students are involved in the creation of the digital story it becomes very meaningful to them and, thus, a very effective teaching tool.
Digital storytelling is only one example in a vast array of Web 2.0 tools available to teachers in the classroom today, and it is one that my students enjoy a great deal. Whenever I tell them we are going to make a “movie” they are on their best behavior because they are highly motivated to participate. Photographing our sight word story above took about 30 minutes, start to finish, but they were engaged the entire time, putting on and taking off the vests, helping put the letters in order, and singing the songs. Now, each morning we start our day by viewing our sight word video; it’s an engaging and meaningful way to teach sight words.
Don’t know where to start? Here’s a quick breakdown of the steps for creating a digital story:
Surf the net looking for examples of digital stories others have created for inspiration
You can break the steps down over a series of days, taking pictures one day, importing and arranging photos the next, and adding narration on another. You can also create a Power Point, convert it, and then import it into Photo Story if you’re more comfortable with Power Point.
Our next project is going to be a re-telling of the classic story Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. The students will wear the same vests from the sight word story as they act out the scenes from the book and narrate it as well. The possibilities for digital storytelling are endless; you are only limited by your imagination.
Using technology in the classroom serves many purposes; it engages the students, motivates them, and also adds greater depth and complexity to our lessons. Over the last few years in my classroom we have switched from cassettes to CD’s to iPods. We went from video to DVD to streaming video on-line and that’s just the beginning. The technology available to our pre-k students today is truly astounding.
What is even more astounding is my students' ability to accept and integrate technology into their daily lives. In our classroom we have an interactive whiteboard, computers, a document camera, a digital projector, iPods, and streaming video on-demand--and I’m sure I forgot something. We use programs like Photo Story and Power Point daily to teach new vocabulary and concepts, like washing hands. The students in my classroom are real “Techno Tots”; they don’t just like technology; they expect it and sometimes even demand it. It's just a natural part of their everyday world.
Portable digital music players like iPods are some of the latest additions to my classroom. Last year our pre-k team wrote a grant for iPod shuffles to promote literacy in the home and we started sending home iPods with our students in October. We load them with recordings of ourselves reading books and the students select which books they want to take home (in both physical and audio form) each night. This has been a smash hit with the Techno Tots. Each morning as they return their iPod and book bag, they are already planning which books they want to check out that day.
One day I overheard the following conversation:
Rebekah: Hey, you know what I heared last night on my iPod?
Hector: What?
Rebekah: I heared the teacher reading Goildilocks!
Hector: I heard that one too! Did you hear the caterpillar story?
Rebekah: Oh yeah! He turned into a bootiful butterfly! That’s my favorite!
Each day, I let one student give a formal “review” of his or her book. We practice asking the reader questions about his or her book. Some of the questions the students have learned to ask are:
What was the title?
Who was the author?
Did you like the book?
What was your favorite part?
Would you read it again?
How many stars do you give it? (students can hold up the fingers on one hand to indicate how many stars they rate the book)
While it may still seem new to those of us who still remember CD’s (or records!), technology is here to stay and it's changing the way we deliver instruction; from pre-k all the way up to the college level. By embracing new technology we can help the Techno Tots keep pace with the quickly changing digital world.
This summer I had the pleasure of working in an Early Childhood Special Education classroom just down the hall from me. I learned a lot in just a few short months and brought a few new ideas back to my School Readiness classes this fall.
One of the ideas I added to my class this year is interactive vocabulary. Intrigued? So was I!
Here's what I do: I pick eight to ten vocabulary words for each unit. I create a card with a picture cue and a label for each word. These cards are stored in a pocket chart near our circle area.
My units are usually three weeks long, so the schedule breaks down like this.
The first week is spent practicing the words two times together. I hold up the card or use a pointer, and we practice as a whole class.
The second week I add objects that represent each vocabulary word. I use toys or miniatures that I have collected (no bigger than your hand) and store them in a picnic basket. As a whole group, we play various games to further our exposure to these words.
During the third week I add direction words such as "under," "on," "in," and "next to." We play games that encourage students to put the object under the bucket, next to the mat, in the box, and so forth.
During our last unit I observed as the following scene unfolded:
After snack, Anna and Marie are invited to pick an activity from the reading and listening area or the puzzle area. Anna heads toward the picnic basket and Marie follows. Anna brings the basket to the carpet and finds a spot to sit. She then goes to get the ten vocabulary word cards from the pocket chart and lays them out on the carpet just like when we work as a whole group.
Anna tells Marie to “find a colored square.” In the meantime, Patty and Robin, who are close by with pointers, decide to join in. Anna again tells them to “find a colored square.”
As Anna plays teacher, she calls on Marie to come to the basket and find its matching word card. This continues with Patty and Robin until all of the words have been matched. They are talking to each other and identifying each word with almost 100% accuracy!
This is a fun, interactive, and independence-building way to help expand vocabulary for all levels of learners.
For as long as I can remember jumping rope has been accompanied with the rhyme, "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around!" This rhyme always sparks vivid memories of time spent on the playground in fifth grade with my best friends. We would spend most of our recess coming up with variations to stump our opponent.
During our winter unit in my pre-k class, we spend about a week talking about bears. We practice hibernating in our caves and experiment with a polar bear’s blubber (shortening in a plastic bag)! Reminded of my childhood rhymes, I decided to play a rhyming game with my students and was amazed at their ability to not only come up with rhyming words but words that (somewhat) appropriately answered my question, "What can a bear do?"
Here are our best ideas:
"Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, eat your fish. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear wash your dish!"
"Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, sleep in your cave. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, don’t forget to shave!"
"Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, swimming in a pool. Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, you are so cool!"
It is always amazing how much learning can come out of a fun game or song. To be honest, rhyming was not one of my objectives for this unit and, yet, many of my students are becoming rhyming wizards! They have latched onto a new concept that was modeled for them. I heard a student the other day say, “Fat and hat, that rhymes!” It is those unexpected, unintentional teaching moments that make pre-k so exciting. We are learning through our experiences and growing from each other.
Recently, during Reading Workshop, my students proved to me how easy it is for four year olds to think "outside the box." While that expression has worn thin with overuse, it still represents an important skill: the ability to look at problems from a variety of perspectives and, thus, solve them more quickly and efficiently. If children really are our future, as the song claims, then thinking outside the box is a crucial skill to foster while they are young.
Our lesson was about problems and solutions in our current genre of nursery rhymes. I pre-selected the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet to use for this lesson because it had a clear problem and it was from our genre. I began by explaining what a problem was:
Me: Remember when we had a fire drill last month and the fire alarm wouldn't turn off afterwards? That was a problem; we had to wait outside for a long time. What was our solution to that problem, does anybody remember?
Cesar (after raising his hand): "The principal said we should pretend the alarm turned off and come back inside... but it was loud!" (Cesar covers his ears with his hands and rolls his eyes for effect.)
The students nod in agreement and begin to share some other examples of real world problems they have encountered in their daily lives.
Yesenia: "My big brother eats breakfast too slow and makes me late."
Jesus: "My baby brother cries a lot, it's loud."
Next, we discussed some real world solutions to their problems.
Peyton (to Yesenia): "You should eat breakfast at school because the teachers in the cafeteria won't let you be late."
Francisco: "Maybe Jesus' baby brother wants his mommy to get him a new diaper, that's what my little brother does when he wants a new diaper."
Of course, this drew all sorts of giggles from the audience.
We then read the nursery rhyme Little Miss Muffet together as a class and we identified Miss Muffet's problem: she was scared of spiders. The solutions my students thought of were much better than any that had occurred to me. I assumed they would say something along the lines of "Miss Muffet should move away from the tree so the spider won't sit down next to her," but I got much more than that...
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Eventually, everyone who learns to read makes the jump. The jump is to
move from a more phonically based understanding of words to "reading"
to "reading fluency." It is getting to this stage that I strive for
every year. However, to get to fluency, most students must pass through
a period of time where they recognize some words without being able to
sound out the words phonetically. 
