A Glimpse into "The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics" by Richardson & Dufresne

My goodness! After reading The Next Step Forward in Word Study and Phonics by Jan Richardson and Michele Dufresne, I think I've just discovered the jackpot of word study resources. This professional text has an abundance of tips, explicit procedures and hands-on activities to implement word study and phonics with students. Richardson and Dufresne state, 

As you work with your students, we hope you discover the same pleasure and success we have experienced in our work with teaching children to be better readers. We also hope we have provided you with useful tools to support you in helping your students become joyful, engaged readers (p.198).

Let's take a peek at the Table of Contents. You'll notice the word study resources support a range of readers, including those working on Pre-A skills through readers achieving skills at Level Z. When you turn the page just beyond the Table of Contents, you'll discover the particulars contained in a set of videos the authors have created for educators. Since this book supplies a link to an online, password protected site, you'd be able to access the content within the videos, in addition to a large number of downloadable materials. 

Below are images of what the online site has to offer. Each tool you'd need to implement word study in small groups is provided, as well as pertinent information to strengthen your practice and grow as an educator.

I'll leave you with a few quotes to give you better insight into what the book offers. I highly recommend you own the book. If you're anything like me, you'll read, highlight and tab the book, then refer to it again and again when planning for small guided groups. 

• Word study goes beyond the rote memorization of letters and sounds. It teaches readers how to apply their knowledge of letters, sounds, and words in order to read and spell (p.9).

• Word study, including phonics, should be taught in small groups and based on the developmental needs of individual students (p.13).

• The key phrase is "developmentally appropriate," not one size fits all (p.13.)

• It doesn't make sense to teach word study the same way to every child (p.16).

• Emphasize meaning and practice flexibility! (p.21)

• Spelling a word is not an efficient way to learn sight words. In fact, it will slow the rate at which students acquire them. You want students to remember sight words as one complete unit (p.29).

• It is important for students to understand, from an early age, that what they read must make sense. As students read, prompt them to use what they know about letters and sounds to help them make sense of the text (p.100).

• A goal of every guided reading lesson is to teach students how to use their newly acquired word study skills while they are reading and writing (p.237).

• Create a love for reading by knowing your students' reading interests. Each day students should read books they select themselves (p.170).

• Learning to read does not need to be a drudgery. The biggest message we want to leave you with is that learning should be joyful (p.198).

Check out #NSFWordStudy on Twitter for more information. :)

Thanks for taking a peek and if you're interested in snagging a free copy, leave a comment below to be entered in a giveaway!

Sight Word Entry Codes for Practicing Sight Words

Sight Word Entry Codes. Ever heard of them? I learned of this idea back in October of 2016 at the Illinois Reading Conference, but figured it's better late than never when sharing an idea, especially when I'm seeing my students' instant sight word recognition sky-rocket and hearing visitors to my school positively comment on it. I've already shared the idea on my microblogging accounts back in October (Twitter and Instagram), but am now just sharing it with my blogging PLN. #whoops

If you already follow me, you are aware I'm a Reading Specialist working with struggling readers, mostly in the younger grades. Many times, the lack of a solid sight word bank is what prevents my students from reading fluently. Of course, there are other factors, but practicing sight words is tremendously helpful. 

The gist of this idea is that students are assessed on their sight words, then given daily practice of three to six words they struggle with by using *entry codes*. Students must tap and accurately read the words in any order on their entry codes before they are allowed to enter the room. (Support is allowed, when needed!) Once the students master the sight words on the entry codes and in their reading, the codes are updated to a new list. I've even had students master all of their sight words, so their entry "requirement" is to give me a fist bump for a job well done. It's a simple way to strengthen their sight word foundation. 

I realize this idea may be a tad overwhelming for a classroom teacher of 28 students, since I mostly pull groups of 3-5 students at a time. Yes, having so few students reading their words before entry to the classroom is definitely more manageable. However, if you are a classroom teacher, an idea is to switch up the name of these codes (Starter Codes?) and place them on a table top flip chart. When pulling small groups of students, have them read the words before starting their rereading of familiar texts. If you are a Kindergarten teacher, entry codes of letter naming and sounds are also an option. Just some thoughts. :)

Since I began implementing this idea back in October, I've altered the format of the codes. At first, I had a full sheet of paper with 6 sight words on a themed-image for each month. For example, I've used clipart images of pumpkins, turkeys, pine trees, snowballs, hearts, shamrocks and now bunnies. I have since downsized the codes to a half sheet of paper, as well as added the students' faces using fun FREE apps that go along with either the holiday or season. You'll see the progression of the entry codes in the images below. 

Some of my *fist bump* kiddos!

So, there you have it...another simple idea to help support your students with sight words.

Happy Reading!

Standing Word Work

Quick Tip: To combat the fidgets in your most active students, get them up and moving during word work, if your classroom space allows for it. I have sets of magnetic letters on cookie trays for those who would rather sit at the table or on the carpet, but also offer an area for students to stand while working. When students are given choice, it works like a charm.

Enjoy!

A Peek into the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention Kit (Throwback)

Happy New Year to all!  Are you ready to be even more successful in the upcoming part of this school year?  I sure am.  I've been working on my #growthmindset by seeking new ways to learn and improve as an educator.  I have a feeling this will be my best year yet! 

In hopes of helping other teachers out there who are new at using the Fountas & Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention Kits (LLI), I've decided to republish a throwback post.  I continue to get inquiries from fellow bloggers about the LLI Kits, so if you or others from your school use this intervention for struggling readers, take a peek below. I share some ideas to keep things fresh and to incorporate a bit of technology, too.  

Enjoy the new year!

Hello all! I've been on a little break from blogging for the past few weeks, since I have been Winter Benchmark assessing Kindergarten through 5th grade students in my school with the assistance of the Reading team.  There's not much time to contribute to blogging when you're waist-deep in assessment.  However, I would like to share with you a little peek into Fountas' and Pinnell's Blue Leveled Literacy Intervention (LLI) Kit, since I use it most often to support my struggling RtI students compared to the other colored kits. 

If you are not familiar with the LLI kits, they are ideal resources to support below grade-level students who are struggling in reading and writing.  The kits are used in a small group setting with 3 to 4 students, depending on the grade-level of the students.  RtI students in Kindergarten through 3rd grade (Orange, Green & Blue Kits) require groups of 3 students for fidelity of the program, while the 4th grade and 5th grade levels (Red & Gold Kits) allow for 4 students per group.  

LLI is scientifically-based and designed to prevent literacy difficulties. The program (along with teacher guidance, of course) provides students opportunities to extend comprehension through discussions and writing, to learn and apply phonics and word solving skills, to increase vocabulary and processing strategies, as well as improve fluency and phrasing through rereading.  Since the groupings are so intimate in size, I'm easily able to model appropriate reading behaviors, in addition to prompt for and reinforce effective reading strategies.  Fidelity of the program definitely correlates to student success.  I have seen much growth in my students' reading abilities, since I began using LLI in the early Fall. 

The majority of the students I service are in grades 2nd and 3rd, which is why I use the Blue Kit most often.  It encompasses guided reading Levels C through N.  There are 120 lessons.  Each lesson has 4 colored copies to use while in group and 6 black and white copies of each book for students to take home for additional reading practice.  Canvas bags are available to keep the Take-Home books in good condition.  In addition, a Prompting Guide and the resource book When Readers Struggle: Teaching That Works are accessible in this kit.

The Prompting Guide supplies a variety of prompts for each targeted reading behavior.  A few prompting categories and examples are below. 

• Early Reading Behaviors "Say it slowly and move your finger under the word.", "Show me____ (a high frequency word) on this page.", "Point to each word as you read."
• Using Information "Can the picture help you think about this part of the story?", "You said____. Does that sound right?", "Are you thinking about what will happen next?"
• Solving Words "Get your mouth ready for the first sound.", "Cover the last part of the word.", "Look at the middle of the word.", "Do you know a word that starts with those letters?"
• Monitoring and Correcting "Why did you stop?", "Does the word you said look like the word on the page?", "It has to makes sense and go with the letters.", "Where is the tricky part?"
• General Problem-Solving "That won't help you.  This will help you .", "Try that again.", "Try it another way.", "Think about what you know." "What can you do?"
• Maintaining Fluency "Listen to me read.  Can you read it like that?", "Make a full stop at the period.", "Make your voice go up when you see a question mark.", "Take a short pause when you see a comma (or dash)."

The lessons are 30 minutes in length (45 minutes in length for the Red & Gold Kits).  There is a nice variety of fiction and nonfiction texts for the students to read.  For each set of 10 lessons, there are 5 instructional texts and 5 independent texts.  The routine for the lessons alternate depending on the lesson number.  Odd-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), introduction of New Book at the instructional level (15 mins) and additional Letter/Word Work (5 mins), if time permits.  Even-numbered lessons consist of Rereading Books and Assessment of the instructional text (5 mins), Phonics/Word Work (5 mins), Writing About Reading (15 mins) and introduction of New Book at the independent level (5 mins).  

Rereading Books and Assessment:
At the start of each group, students are required to reread the new instructional-level book and independent-level books from the previous lesson or lessons.  During this time, you *listen in* while the students softly read, which allows you to support them with any needed prompting.  This is when the prompting guide becomes very handy.  Keep in mind, there is absolutely NO "Round Robin" reading, as was common before research confirmed it as a very unproductive use of time.  Not all of the students in the small group need the same prompting, so students taking turns to read aloud while peers wait for a turn is an ineffective strategy. 

Moving on...Face it, most struggling readers are unmotivated to read, which is why they're struggling in the first place.  It's such a viscous cycle.  Don't you agree?  Well, for those slightly unmotivated students,  sometimes a little *magical touch* is needed to spark interest.  I  have trinkets available for my students to use when reading, including whisper phones, "eye-lighters", sock puppets, hand pointers, magnifying glasses and holiday-themed knickknacks.  In addition, I supply fix-up strategy book marks as a visual support for students.  

In regards to the Assessment portion of the lesson, only one or two students' reading is coded using running records on a particular day, so students being assessed must rotate throughout the week.  I take running records weekly for each of my students because they are well below grade level.  I then alter my teaching and prompting based on the students' running record miscues.  The instructional-level text from the previous day's lesson is used.  Fountas and Pinnell have a (paid-subscription) Literacy Online Resources site containing all of the lessons' materials, including running record forms for each instructional-level text.  I pull up the running record form for the lesson being assessed and code the students' reading behaviors on notebook paper using the Coding and Scoring form below.  Cute binders from Target keep my running records organized.  In order to help save beautiful trees, I do not print the copies of the running record forms.  

Phonics/Word Work:
During this portion of the lesson, students are explicitly and systematically instructed on how language works.  The LLI kits provide an Alphabet and Consonant Cluster Linking Chart, poems, letter & word games, and lists of suggested words that can be documented on anchor charts with students.  Magnetic letters with cookie trays, beads with pipe cleaners, letter stamps with ink pads, flyswatters and paint strips of various colors are also available in my room to assist in our work work activities.  In addition, I often use iPad Apps to boost interest in recording the words being taught.  Some easy-to-use Apps include Screen Chomp, ABC Magnetic Letters, Doodle Buddy and ShowMe.  However, on occasion the students participate in QR Code activities focused on the phonics skill being practiced.  In that case, they use the SCAN App. :)  

New Book: 

When introducing the new instructional-level book, students are provided the gist of the story.  They are also given the opportunity to *walk~through* the text with guidance looking for tricky words, new vocabulary, language structures and important text features when necessary.  Previewing the text should only take about 3 or 4 minutes.  It's very similar to the routines of Jan Richardson's guided reading routines.  As mentioned in the Rereading Books section, teachers use the prompting guide while *listening in* on the students during this portion of the lesson, too.  (Remember, NO "Round Robin" reading!) Once the students have been given time to read the book in its entirety, a group discussion takes place referring the students back into the text to support their answers to questions asked.

Writing:
LLI involves students extending their understanding of texts through writing in 3 forms: Interactive, Dictated and Independent.  They record their writing in My Writing Book. The writing books are available in yellow, purple and red.  There is no particular reason for the colors for the exception of allowing for some student choice.  Giving *choice* to students is always a good thing!  On a side note, in the Red and Gold kits dedicated to the upper grades, the writing books are different and provide a word study portion. 

Interactive Writing:
During interactive writing, students compose a text with the teacher.  I ask students to write words or parts of words on the board as I offer guidance and support.  The students LOVE participating in interactive writing! 

Dictated Writing: 

My little ones often have trouble with dictated writing because they miss some of the spoken words in their writing.  I generally use some sort of manipulative such as beads, holiday-themed erasers, buttons, etc. to support students in counting the number of spoken words needed in the dictated sentences.  It supports 1:1 correspondence of spoken and written words.  We count out the manipulative together as I dictate the sentence.  The students must then make sure to have as many words in their sentence as beads/erasers/buttons in front of them.  For instance, a student writing the sentence "The boy walked to the park with his friend." would need 9 counters in front of him or her.

Independent Writing: 

Independent writing may take several different forms depending on the students' needs.  Students may write lists, labels for pictures, sentences, paragraphs, etc.  On days the students are required to write independently, I often supply them with graphic organizers or response activities to guide them in responding to their texts.  Those organizers or responses are then placed into their writing books.  The writing books become a keep-sake for them and a place to document their growth throughout the year.  If you're interested in fiction and nonfiction guided writing ideas for Levels A-I and J+, click the poster below. :)

Well, there you have it...a little peek into the F&P Leveled Literacy Intervention Blue Kit.  Do you use the LLI kits with your students?  I'd love to hear your story, if you do!  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below. 

P.S. Thank you to the following graphic artists for the backgrounds, clip art and fonts! :)