This chapter covered the area of phonics. It defined the difference between phonemes and graphemes, and also suggested that there are 3 layers in phonics – decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. The text gave principles to follow when teaching phonics, and one was to use an appropriate text. Including such things as phonograms and rhyming words in the text helps students see how to use phonics to read those words. Using texts that are predictable also help the reader think through what the next word might be, teaching them to apply the skills they have learned. It also has to be a meaningful text that the student will enjoy reading. Keeping the reader interested in the text is key to helping them want to learn to read. It also gave ideas for assessments in phonics, such as giving word sorts or checklists to the students. Because I am going to be working with 4th grade students, and hope to teach an upper elementary grade when I get a job, I had to wonder how much of this is used in those grades. If they are struggling readers, will phonics be something that will have to be reviewed and reviewed? Is it almost too late to deal with phonics by the upper elementary grades? The book seemed to present different views on this as to what some think. It also got me to thinking about my own training in phonics. Because it has literally been decades since I was in kindergarten or first grade, I don’t remember if my teachers preached phonics to us or not. I don’t remember specific rules when I try to sound out an unfamiliar word. Yet, it seems I usually get pretty close to the right pronunciation, and it also seems I have some method to my madness when trying to pronounce a new word. So it made me wonder that if phonics rules are hammered into students when they are young, is it something that sticks with them all their lives, even if they aren’t specifically aware of individual rules or the fact that they are truly using phonics rules? If so, it makes it seem of utmost importance to drill phonics rules into students when they are learning to read. Yet, students with learning disabilities may not easily memorize the rules, so then a different method would have to be used. This is something I want to be aware of in the classroom – not all students learn alike. While phonics may be important for some, they may be impossible for others to grasp. I don’t want to get so caught up in the method or approach that I leave some students lost on the frin
You make some very valid points with your questions. I think that certain parts of phonics can be employed in the upper grades, such as word patterns, and rimes. They just may not need all of the instruction like younger students. I also do not remember how I learned phonics in school, I just remember reading lists of words covering the chalkboard.
I posed a similar question because I am tutoring 3rd grade students and I hope to teach upper elementary or middle school. I fee that if kids in the upper elementary don't have these basics built in, shouldn't we start them at the ground floor and work them up. It would seem to me that we shouldn't skip steps if they are already struggling. They would probably forge through these things quicker than the younger students, so why not teach them. I just a believer in starting with the basics and build the foundation.
Chapter 5 of the text focuses on phonics. There are three layers of English spelling, alphabetic where students spell words letter by letter and left to right, pattern of letters, and meaning of different spellings for different forms of words. Students learn phonics through decoding onset, rime, and initial letter, encoding from left to right, top to bottom, and space between letters, and teacher modeling for students to observe and allow discussions of writing. There are four principles of phonics instruction. Base instruction on what students know through meaningful content. Provide systematic phonics instruction through analytic, synthetic, phonics through spelling, analogy, phonics in context, and onset & rime. Use appropriate texts in shared reading that are predictable, phonograms, and rhyming words. Also embed instruction in meaningful context through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities focused on meaningful tasks creating meaningful contexts. The chapter also covered activities emphasizing initial consonant sounds, onset & rime, rhyming word patterns, and sounds within words, along with technology links.
Students need to know generalizations of the rules, but these rules do not always apply. The Phonics at a Glance glossary will be a valuable resource in the future, along with the activities at the end. I really liked figure 5.6 that gives common vowel sounds for English and Spanish, this will be very helpful with helping ELs.
Last year, while in my children's school, I noticed that the Kindergarten teacher really focused on forming your mouth the correct way when saying letters. I completely agree with the text that the context needs to be meaningful to the students in order for them to retain it. The question that arises for me from the text is from in providing systematic phonics instruction it states to teach in a planned sequence using one of the several approaches. Since there are multiple learning styles, would it be appropriate to only use one approach? I feel that all the approaches are beneficial and need to be incorporated into content. This chapter is very helpful for me in regards to my tutoring group which is first graders and they usually need the most help with phonics. Especially the diphthongs, digraphs, and clusters.
I think you have a good point about whether or not it is appropriate to only use one approach in teaching phonics. Just as we are learning in all the subjects, students learn in different ways, plus there are ESOL students who might need things taught differently. Finding out how our students learn best and then applying that to any subject might be key for those students' learning in the most effective environment. I'm learning that education is definitely not a "one-size-fits-all" piece of clothing!
I love that the kindergarten teacher focused on forming the mouth to say the letters. I think it really has to be over-emphasized, especially for some kids who maybe have been saying letters or words incorrectly. I don't understand why parents/adults think it's cute when kids say words wrong or use baby talk when speaking. All that does is put them in a position to fall behind their peers. I will have 2nd graders in my tutoring group and from the little I know about them from their teacher, I think phonics will be my focus as well. I can't wait to use some of the activities listed in this chapter for my tutoring group!
I have noticed lots of phonemic awareness and phonics activities by I don't recall having ever seen a kindergarten or 1st grade teacher show students how to position/form their mouths to say letters or words correctly. I believe there should be more of this. I also feel this could be more helpful to students with hearing disabilities.
Chapter 5 is about how to teach and reinforce phonics. I have to tell you after reading this chapter and after all the classes we have had on phonics, it is amazing everything involved with teaching and knowing this. Last chapter made me stop and say words to see how my mouth was positioned and this chapter I did the same. We think there are only 5 vowels, but they make up 19 different phonemes. No wonder English learners have a hard time. I thought it was interesting how beginning readers learn to read by focusing on onset, rime, and the letter itself, and the length of the word. They also make analogies to pronounce words they do not know. The four key principles of phonics instruction was interesting and made sense. Base the instruction on what the students know and are interested in, this helps grab their attention and want more. Provide systematic phonics instruction, there are 6 of those. What I got from this is it is a stepping-stone for teaching, you start with sight words, move into sounds and blends, and eventually teach how to decode words. The third step is one I think is very important. If the appropriate level of text is not used, it will break the flow of your reader and they will lose interest. If the text is at the students reading level they will feel success and want to move on. The fourth step in to show them how to find meaning within the text. After reading the activities, I thought some that were even at the lower levels could be used for the higher grades. Listen for the initial consonant blend would work great for a few 6th graders I have worked with. Even though my unit focus is comprehension, I plan on playing this sometime throughout the sessions as a review.
I agree it is amazing when you think about how much is involved with teaching and learning phonics. Also, for me it is a little overwhelming in just trying to remember all of them. Learning the English language is challenging and teaching it also is going to bring its challenges but who doesn't like a good challenge.
This chapter tells us that phonics is the basic building block on which all other reading and spelling is based. It is a little intimidating to think that if I do not catch a student with problems in phonics then they will struggle with reading for the rest of their life. I agree, the four principles were full of great information that each teacher must know in order to be successful in teaching phonics.
Students learn phonics in several ways: decoding words, encoding words and teacher modeling. Decoding involves the use of rime as a pattern of recognition and then adding the onset. An example would be __am: Sam, ham, jam; they easily recognize the sound “am” makes so adding a consonant in front of it is no problem for them because it is a pattern of sounds. Encoding is figuring out how reading works; like reading left to right, top to bottom and that there are spaces between words. Teachers can further promote phonics learning for students by using rhyme – word families and modeling proper writing and speaking. I have always heard that learning the English language is difficult for people who speak other languages. Several of the foreign exchange students we’ve had at our school have verified this because of all the rules and variations in our language and words that have more than one meaning. The English language has many letter-sound relationships that are not consistent: /f/ in from and phone; long /a/ in maid, they, eight. Spanish is similar to English and therefore not as difficult to learn as it is for other English Language Learners. There are four principles that should guide phonics instruction: base instruction on what students know, provide systematic phonics instruction, use appropriate texts, and imbed instruction in meaningful contexts. There are also several ways to assess students in phonics: checklists of letters (upper/lower names, sound, word that begins with and word that ends with that sound); survey of ability (consonant sound, rhyming word, consonant digraph, long vowel sound, word with CVC patter, consonant blends, syllables in word); word sorts (use picture cards to sort by either beginning sound, ending sound or medial sound); informal reading inventory and qualitative spelling inventories. I am so excited about the intervention strategies provided in the book. I will definitely use some of these if my tutoring group ends up having phonics for its focus. The word wall of word families seems more useful to me than just a word wall based on initial letter. Short vowel bingo and flip books are two that I would like to do. I also plan to visit the websites listed at the end of the chapter that focus on phonics.
I agree with you that the interventions provided by this chapter is very useful and will come in handy with our tutoring groups. I also agree that the websites listed at the end of the chapter look very interesting and deserve to be explored further.
I always think of phonics instruction being for younger students but after reading the scenario I am more aware of older students that may also need this instruction. The phonics glossary is a good tool for quick reference. It was interesting to learn that 50% of teachers that were surveyed could use more phonics training. I believe this is due to the fact that unless you are working with struggling readers or younger students many classrooms do not practice phonics instruction. I am sure this is not always the case but if definitely something I am observing in the schools. The author reminds us to be careful using confusing terminology when working with struggling readers. Using some educational terms may frustrate the students who are already overwhelmed. Decoding, encoding and teacher modeling are the 3 layers of English spelling. It is important to help students build background knowledge and recognize patterns. I learn best if I can watch someone model the process. This is probably why I believe teacher modeling to be an important part of any instruction regardless of the subject that is being taught. I have a good friend who is the speech pathologist for my school district and after observing her on several different occasions can see why it is important for teachers to understand the correct position of the mouth and tongue for producing each sound. This is something I would like to learn more about. I thought the articulation of vowel sounds diagram was interesting to examine. Teachers should also be aware of the common spelling patterns in the English language although we all know there are many exceptions to these rules. I think English would be one of the harder languages to learn because of its deep orthography. I like the list of principles of phonics instruction; it is always good to be reminded about following these guidelines during instruction. This chapter discusses using appropriate texts. Almost every time I choose literature for lesson plans I question whether or not that particular book is appropriate for the students I am teaching. This chapter gives some good rules to follow when choosing materials for phonics instruction. The assessment section discusses the many different types of informal assessment tools. I tend to always want to use a checklist and am going to try to use different means of informal assessment in my future lesson plans. A checklist is nice and easy but is not always the best tool for the job. There are a lot of neat activities described in this chapter that I would like to use in my future lesson plans. I am looking forward to working with some younger students so I can have the opportunity to practice my phonics instruction. The ReadWriteThink.org site is mentioned. I looked at this website and it has some great lesson plans ideas and resources. There are several other websites mentioned that I am looking forward to examining.
Phonics is something that I need to look more into if I am teaching older grade levels. I feel that teachers only use it in the younger grades, and I do not want to be restricted with ideas if I do not have younger grade level. I am going to look at the ReadWriteThink.org website as well. I think it will have good information, I am glad you mentioned that in your post.
I enjoyed reading on this chapter because like the fourth chapter, it really breaks down phonics and shows us how kids learn it, how we should teach it, and how we can assess it as well. I love the fact that we were provided with activities again to use as a resource in the future. I also found the "Phonics Glossary at a Glance" a very helpful refresher on a lot of the terms. I found the three principles helpful, especially in that teachers should start with what the students know and build upon that. I believe that phonics instruction should be a planned sequence of approaches because I believe each step builds upon the previous and without that properly built foundation, it may be too difficult to go on. Even though there are formal assessments, I believe the informal assessments performed in the classroom, at several stages in the school year, will provide the most information with regards to student gain in phonics. I believe phonemic awareness and phonics instruction is very important for students to make the correlation of sounds of letters, combinations of letters, and words. This will ultimately build the foundation for the introduction of vocabulary, then fluency in reading, and lastly, comprehension.
I forgot to present a question about the text. My question is, when does phonics stop being taught, and why? My thought on this is that it seems like it is taught at the early elementary stages which is quite normal. But why, if students are struggling in upper elementary, is phonemic awareness and phonics not used as much. It would seem to me that if this method is good enough to initially teach children reading, why not go back to the basics with those that never built that foundation?
Robert, I agree, the informal observations or assessments will show where the student is on the concept being taught. I am certainly not the person to answer your question, but I do know last year, one of the teachers I worked with brought in a phonics instructor to help her reading class and that was 6th grade. One of the main administrators questioned her and was not pleased she had done it. When she showed what the students were lacking, and explained over and over, they were still not pleased, but her reading class benefitted and did well on State Assessments at the end of the year. So I am not sure when you stop, I would think you do what you have to in order to help the student.
Phonics has three main parts to it: decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. With decoding students are recognizing patterns in words such as rhymes. Students recognize the middle sound while changing the beginning letter. Encoding is how learning how to read. In English, students read left to right, top to bottom. It is important that students learn the rules of how to read and follow encoding. Teacher modeling consist of the teacher demonstrating proficient verbal and writing skills, along with teaching word families. When I work in the kindergarten rooms most teachers have a 20 -30 minute phonics/phonemic awareness block. The students work on word families, and have a letter of the week. This block is important for the students so that can work on their phonics skills. Beyond first grade, I am not aware of what teachers do for phonics. I am tutoring fourth grade boys, and I am kind of relieved that I am not focusing on phonics with them. If this skill is not taught at a young age, students regardless of what grade level they are in can struggle. I feel I would be stumped to find ways to teach phonics to older students. Any ideas?
Cassy, Good overview of the 3 main parts. I have substituted in kindergarten classrooms that also have a letter of the week. I am tutoring 4th grade girls and also feel a relief about not focusing on phonics...which should probably tell me that is the area I need to practice! I think some of the activities in the textbook could be used with older students too. We should visit after our first 2 sessions since we have the same age children. Good luck to you, Kara
This chapter starts out by saying that school districts must demonstrate student growth in phonics to qualify for federal funds. I think this statement shows how important learning phonics is in the schools and as a student. Students learn about phonics through three layers which are: decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. It is important to assess what students already know and then build on their prior knowledge. This is one of four principles that you use when teaching phonics instruction. This chapter also provides different activities that you can use. One question I have would be is a word wall basically mandatory now in elementary class rooms because you see them in every room? I don't remember having word walls in school but maybe I just didn't pay enough attention. I look at the issue of teacher modeling different every time I read about it because it is so important for us as teachers to model and talk about the students writing and for us to talk the appropriate way so that they hear words said correctly. In my own experience I can relate back to my previous internship and seeing the teacher use flashcards to help the students to learn their phonics and how to say words. The students practiced saying words all the time which I think is important because you only get better with practice.
Phonics instruction is of course very important, and it is amazing how much of a difference federal funding can make in school instruction, and how much it is impacted by student improvement. I love the activities that go along with all of the chapters. So many of them are very relevant, and would be great to use in our tutoring sessions. That is a great question about word walls. I see exactly where you are coming from. It seems to be a very emergent practice that I don’t remember when I was in school either. However, I think that it is a great thing to have in a classroom. It is amazing to me as well, the different ways for teacher modeling, though they all have the same purpose. Like you said it is very important and something that all teachers must do so they can be fully effective in their teaching. I have seen a lot of sight word practice as well. I have been able to tell the more effective ways from the less effective ways in some of the classrooms I have been in. it has been very interesting.
I agree with you that phonics is extremely important. I do not really agree with it being tied directly to federal funding. I also like your comment about word walls. I too do not remember them being used in classrooms when I was growing up, but I think they are an amazing asset now. I use word walls in my classes that I work in now and the kids love them. I also agree with you that sight words are critical. I think that the more sight words a child can get down, the better they will be at not only reading but comprehending as well.
For my word wall, I use them at a level where students can interact with the words. My word wall is located under my SMARTboard and the words are attached with magnets so that the students can take the words off and use them and then put them back. In the past, I've used chunking word walls that reinforce word families.
Chapter 5 is about phonics and how we can better the phonics instruction by knowing the rules that students tend to have problems with. I thought that the section on the four principals was really helpful and was full of wonderful useful information in phonics instruction. The section on assessments allowed me to make more sense of the different kinds of testing we are doing with our students this first week of tutoring sessions. I thought that the surveys section and the word sorts sections were really helpful and has some great ideas to go along with it.
Though I know how important individualized instruction is really helpful, and important, this chapter started out by talking about how phonics instruction as a whole-class setting is almost completely ineffective because of the leveling differences and lack of background knowledge. I thought that the debate of whether or not phonics instruction was needed for older students was different as well. Though it is important for students to work on vocabulary and comprehension, without having that letter-sound relationship they will now be able to understand the vocabulary or comprehend what is being read. I was always confused when letters y and w were considered a vowel. The explanation on page 106 was really helpful in helping me understand that.
This chapter mentioned a few times about how making the material meaningful to the students will help them be able to decode words. When talking about students recognizing certain phonemes to have a certain sound it make me think of the phonics dance that has been talked about by Ms. Stoppel in the recordings, as well as it being performed by the class that I am currently interning in for social studies. Helping students recognize these, is so helpful and essential when learning to read.
Brenna- I also thought that the section on assessments was helpful as well and with the videos and that section, I have a better understanding on what is to be expected of me and of the students. There has been so much material to learn for this course and we have had to learn it fast! I am so glad the book along side the videos have helped clear it up!
I also find it interesting that phonics instruction in an entire class setting is literally ineffective. I can see why it would be more beneficial to use phonics with IEP’s rather than as a group. Many students pick up on general phonics principles very quickly, while others tend to struggle. At this point to we hold back some students while trying to catch others up, or do we move on and let other students continue to struggle. Could this be an underlining factor in middle school students still reading at a 4th grade level, I don’t know, but it is worth discussion.
Chapter 5 was an introduction into phonics. The text describes the ways that students learn phonics with decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. Much can also be said about patterns within the English language. The chapter goes on to discuss the principles of phonics instruction which include, basing instruction on what the students know, providing systematic phonics instruction, using appropriate texts, and embedding instruction in meaningful contexts. The chapter also discusses forms of assessment and list many activities to help us teach phonics. I understand that phonics instruction is generally designed for younger elementary students, yet I feel there are some students who never learned phonics when they were younger. I know some 8th grade students who can’t read, and I don’t know if it has to do with phonics or phonemic awareness, but I am curious to why they haven’t learned how to read fluently by the 8th grade. I feel like I was pretty lucky growing up, my mother taught me how to read before I ever started school. I don’t remember all the specifics, but I do vaguely remember her reading to me every night before bed, and her making me go through flash cards of I think letters and words, but I can’t be for sure. I do find it funny that one of my earliest memories revolves around teaching and learning.
I remember struggling with phonics as a first grade student. For one I ALWAYS confused "j" and "g." It was very frustrating for me. It was odd that I could read just fine but when you asked me questions about the sounds letters made I did not get it. Of course my memory is probably not completely spot on but I definitely remember the frustration. I am still not a big fan of phonics. My biggest problem now is remembering what everything is called, because as a substitute I am not in the same classroom all the time. I am sure that I will be fine if I teach a lower grade though as it won't take me long to remember it when I am using it every day!
Chris, I wonder also how to re-teach some of these phonics skills to older students who struggle with reading. I have seen many upper elementary grade students struggle through a page and it always cause me to wonder what I could do as a teacher to help them read better and catch these reading problems earlier. I struggled with phonics as a child because I was not taught with that method, but somehow overcame it to be a good reader. Now as I read through these chapters, I keep having moments of “that is why we pronounce it that way.” I would like to enable my students to understand phonics and use it well, rather than take years to sink in.
Chapter 5 was all about phonics. I actually loved this chapter. I'm not trying to sound coincided, but English is my best subject. My husband calls me the Grammar Natzi! So I always love reading other ways to help students with their phonics. I know phonics does not come natural to some people, but to me it does so in that sense it is hard for me to teach it sometimes.
I really feel that it is important to model phonics from their teacher. The book describes how modeling is on important resource students can use to get better in phonics.
My favorite section of the chapter would have to be the intervention strategies. It is so helpful to know that not only are we being taught the correct way to teach phonics but there are strategies that can be useful not only during tutoring but as teachers as well.
I think you are right in reference to the modeling aspect. I think that a teacher has to be the example in all he or she does within the classroom. Phonics is just one of the many things. I have been working as a para educator for a while now and I have been in many different classes. One teacher that I worked with did not pronounce words clearly and had trouble with her own phonics. As a result of this, the children within the classroom struggled as well. It was very difficult for them to learn the correct way of pronouncing and reading words. I attribute this directly to the teacher's modeling.
This week we were to read chapter 5 which was titled Phonics. The chapter began by defining graphophonic system and grapheme. I believe this was a great start, as it laid the foundation for the rest of the chapter. The chapter then went on to explain how students learn phonics, by decoding words, encoding words, teacher modeling, English spelling patterns, and principles of phonics instruction. I really enjoyed the principles of phonics instruction. I thought it laid out exactly what we as teachers need to do. Basing the instruction on what students know, providing systematic instruction, using appropriate texts, and embedding instruction in meaningful context are all ways that phonics is best taught to students. The chapter then moved to assessment, covering informal and formal assessments. I think assessments are a part of the learning process that is often over looked by many. I think that assessments are possibly more important than anything else. The assessment process is not only a learning process for the students but the teacher as well. The chapter finished up with activities. I really liked the flip book activity. I think it is a cute way for children to learn. Being able to show them how by changing one letter you can change the entire word, and also how to show them the similarities in words is crucial. I really do not have any questions out of this chapter. I believe this is possibly the most important chapter in the book. This is why we teach, in my opinion. I love reading and want more than anything else in the world to teach struggling children how to push through and read as well.
Julie, I completely agree with you about thinking that this quite possibly is the most important chapter in the text. This chapter is definitely a foundation to building reading skills and becoming a life long reader (hopefully!). I also agree that the flip chart activity is something that is a great activity. I think this is something that I will try to integrate into some of my tutoring sessions.
Julie, I think Phonics is very important as well. I was a struggling reader and can now see if I would of been given text at my level, I may have had a different attitude towards reading. I sometimes wonder about that program"Hooked On Phonics" if they may of figured out what was lacking.
Chapter Five focuses on one of the most important and essential skills in reading—phonics. The chapter provides an overview of phonics including specific definitions and glossaries to gain a clear and technical understanding. The chapter looks specifically at the importance that vowel, consonants and spelling play in phonics. Additionally, this chapter looks at the importance of articulation and how sounds are formed in our mouths. There are four specific components relative to phonics instruction; base instruction, systematic instruction, use appropriate texts and embed instruction in meaningful context.
Assessments is a key component to monitoring, developing and reinforcing phonics instruction. There are a number of ways in which assessment can not only measure, but also reinforce phonics instruction. The text provides a variety of assessments tools that can be utilized ranging from; words sorts, word walls, initial sounds, alliteration, and dominoes. The text also provides several other examples of activities that can be utilized to provide phonics instruction; flip books, word family concentration, mystery word search, etc.
I found this chapter extremely important, especially since the focus of my instruction for tutoring will be on phonemic awareness and beginning phonics. Nothing from this chapter changed my perspective about phonics, however it was just reinforced. Several of the activities that are mentioned in the text are most definitely activities that I believe would be great to integrate into instruction for upcoming tutoring sessions.
Maggie, I think this phonics chapter is important as well. You know, I remember when my own children began to work on and learn how to read, how tricky it was at times to realize and think about all the different sounds individual letters of our alphabet make. It didn't seem like a big deal to my children, but it became quite a realization to me that the English language is really pretty crazy. I think I became even more aware of the multiple sounds when learning the phonograms with Dr. Walizer. I do think activities such as learning the phonograms are helpful to students learning to read or possibly struggling with phonics or maybe fluency. I'm hoping I can utilize some of those "strategies & activities" as well.
I learned a lot when we did the phonograms with Dr. Walizer! I don't recall my pretest score, but it was not good. One thing I wonder about is if it is ever too late to introduce the phonograms? I mean, we have been told that our unit focus will not be phonics if we are 2nd grade or older, but what if that is where our students are at? Maybe the phonograms could be used as integration within.
Chapter 5 goes in depth with phonics instruction. The chapter discusses the difficulties ESOL students would have when learning the English language.It seems that for every rule we teach our students their are just as many exceptions. The chapter also discusses the importance of using a systematic approach with phonics instruction and teaching phonics using explicit and embedded instruction. In my classroom, it seems that when teaching phonics skills explicitly students seem to get the concept but when they need to apply the skills in writing etc...they aren't forget the rules and exceptions. This is something that I am trying to work on...How do we get our students to consistently apply the phonics skills they learn. Even with embedded instruction I do not see this on a consistent basis. The chapter also gives some great examples of phonics activities. I use these during our reading rotations. Students seem to love any activity that is similar to a game. I've also read that doing word sorts each day is an important part of instruction, which was also mentioned in this chapter. I found the review of phonics terms helpful, too. Especially for testing when terminology is used. The review of terms was helpful so that I can make sure I am using the correct terms.
I don't know what others would say but in regards to your issue about applying the phonics skills one thing I have found myself doing more in small groups is as I teach a rule such as whats your name e, meaning that when there is an e at the end of the word the e makes the vowel say its name. So if the group is reading and gets stuck on a word with that rule I remind them of the rule rather than tell them the word. It seems to work and these are students who are in 7th grade but have a 2nd to 3rd grade reading level.
Lisa, It is so true that ESOL students have a lot of trouble learning English because there are so many rules and just as many that contradict those. It can be very confusing! ~Lori
Jeanette, I agree with you that it is very effective to remind students of the rules when they are reading instead of just telling them the word.(if they have been taught the rules)! ~Lori
This chapter in our DeVries text is all about phonics instruction: what teachers should know about phonics, how students learn phonics, how to teach phonics, different kinds of phonics assessments, good ways to teach phonics, and computer programs that help build phonics knowledge. A variety of phonics terms are defined and shown with examples. Students learn about phonics through decoding, from teacher modeling, and learning about spelling patterns. Recognizing the many ways that consonants and vowels are used in the English language is beneficial for reading, spelling, and writing; however, the many phonemes represented in the English alphabet do create quite the challenge for English language learners. Phonics instruction needs to focus on what students know, needs to be taught in a planned sequence, needs to use appropriate texts, and it also needs to focus on meaningful tasks which create meaningful contexts. Assessments record growth in what’s been learned about phonics, as well as additional areas of phonics that students need to learn more about; there are both formal and informal assessments. I guess a question and uncertainty I have pertaining to phonics is the area of assessments. I haven’t had much observation with this, and I wonder how teachers know which assessments to use for specific classroom assignments. I have always thought phonics was very beneficial to good reading skills. Phonics was one of my favorite parts of reading and language arts in elementary school; it was something that was definitely stressed in my first 3-4 years of grade school. I still think it’s a valuable part of classroom learning today, especially when one is reminded of the many sounds our vowels and consonants make. . The principles of phonics instruction that the text expanded upon provided some great information to keep in mind for our students; I especially appreciated the section on using appropriate texts, as well as the appropriate sequence of phonics instruction. Something else I’ve learned as a student myself and found very applicable to this chapter is the phonograms that we can put on cards and use with our own students. I thought about these while reading this phonics chapter and how helpful I think they can be in learning the big variety of letter sounds and letter combinations that are part of our English language.
You raise a good question about the assessment. I think if we used a miscue analysis similar to what we used for our students might be a good starting place. Then if could be reassessed two to three times a school year.
Chapter 5 is about phonics. Phonics is the symbol sound relationship of a word. The chapter shares the concepts that are important for teaching students how to learn phonics. It mentions that decoding words, encoding words, and teacher modeling are all very important. Decoding words can be done with onset and rime. It is easier for the student to read using these types of words. Encoding words involves the students to listen to the sounds in the words and breaking them up. It is also important for them to read left to right, top to bottom, and recognize the spaces between them. Finally students can learn phonics by modeling and talking about writing. Teaching phonics relies on four important keys. Those keys are 1. Assess what students know about phonics and base your instruction on that. 2. Teach phonics in a systematic way. 3. Use appropriate texts to teach the students. 4. Teach phonics in a meaningful way. If the text is important to the student than it is important to learning. I am very familiar with phonics so I do not have any questions. The reading did not necessarily help me look at an issue differently but it did give me a more in depth look at some the generalizations of phonics in more depth. These generalizations make it easier for the student to understand why the word is broke down the way it is. I also liked the diagram that explained where the vowels originate in the mouth. I have used this in the classroom. Vowel Town has a hill followed by a valley and then up a hill again. Depending on where the vowel is in the town depends on how your mouth is open. The games and activities in this chapter are going to be handy in the classroom.
The diagram on page 107 was very interesting. I will have to look up the "Vowel Town" you mentioned. It sounds like something I could learn a lot from. I really enjoy the games and activities at the end of the chapters as well. There is a lot of good information there that will be handy when it is time to do lesson plans.
Chapter 5 is all about phonics. I had NO IDEA that there were so many terms that are associated with phonics! There were almost 40 listed on pages 102 and 103, and a couple of them I had never heard of. One thing I learned is the actual meaning of the schwa sound. I have always had trouble understanding that, and since this gave an example of each letter making the sound, I think I have it now. Some of the other important information in the chapter included decoding and encoding. I also learned that there are four main principles of phonics instruction. They include instruction based on what students know, systematic instruction, using appropriate texts, and embed instruction in meaningful contexts. This chapter also went over several types of assessments. I really liked the fact that last week’s reading had a lot of activities that could be used in the classroom or during tutoring. This chapter did not disappoint either. The activities at the end of the chapter were great. I love the fact that they were divided by what they emphasized. These activities will be very useful for anyone that does their unit focus on phonics.
I was amazed to see how much went into phonics and all of the great information that this chapter had in it. I also had a trouble learning about the schwa sound in the past, but this chapter did a great job explaining it to the point that I understand it now.
I was excited to read this chapter because I have a feeling that my tutoring will be in this area. I loved that the text broke down phonics instruction into 4 basics tenets. These are build on what students know. I think this is important because it builds on success, which is a positive experience for students and will help prevent overwhelming them or burn out. The next is systematic instruction. You must know what you are teaching and how you are teaching it in order to be effective. Third is use appropriate texts. If the students cannot enjoy the texts, then they are not enjoying reading and we are here to build skills and that LOVE of reading. The final principle is to make the instruction meaningful. I think this is important for all learners in every conceivable area. With phonetic instruction, this means making it fun and useful to students. The book suggests giving students different ways to show what they are learning, such as acting, creating something, or playing games. I think this aligns with a lot of what Mrs. Stoppel has been talking about in her videos. The activities listed in this chapter are great too, I’ve already flagged several of them for future reference.
You mentioned that you "loved that the text broke down phonics instruction into 4 basics tenets." I like that they broke it down as well. It helps us to keep our lessons in check.I know for me I 'used to' assume. Assume students knew things that they had no idea what I was talking about and if we assume that any text is okay, or if a lower level is okay for everyone we are doing a disservice. And if we assume that a student knows what an F250 is, the student could be utterly lost in a passage about trucks if they are from the city! Good post
I was really looking forward to this chapter as I thought that my content focus was going to be phonics. I will admit that I was relieved when their assessment scores showed a much higher need for comprehension though. I will be using several of the ideas at the end of the chapter for during the skills portion of my lessons though. I really enjoyed the "Phonics Glossary at a Glance." Of course figures 5.1, 5.2 and 5.4 are great resources too. Well all of the figures are great resources but those were some of my favorites from this chapter. I have always wondered how different curriculum sets decided which letters to introduce to children. I was a speech para for five years so I have a pretty good understanding of which sounds children develop first, but I was always wondering what a suggested list would be for instruction in the classroom. I know I have had several people ask me why we don't teach children the letter "a" first. I really like the overview provided in figure 5.7. This chapter will be especially helpful this semester for those of us that will be using phonics as the content focus.
I thought my content focus was going to be phonics too, but my students actually did pretty well in that area as well. I haven't gotten to do my second session yet thanks to the snow, but I have a feeling my students are going to need help in comprehension as well. Because I read to them out of chapter book and then when I asked them questions about it after words, they didn't seem to quite get the main idea of the chapter.
If there is one thing that I'm really enjoying about this text, it's the figures. This book has great ones that are not just informative but useful as well. I know that several of them have landed in my folder of stuff for when I teach.
This chapter brought on a lot of great information and activities for another part of the Big 5, Phonics. This chapter starts off with a great table, that is on pages 103 and 104, "Phonics Glossary at a Glance". This table breaks everything down, making it a littler easier to understand different parts of words, such as; accent, affix, base, consonant cluster, and consonant digraphs. Having all of this information right here on this table makes it a lot easier to look at and understand what each item is and how to use it. This chapter also gives great examples of how students learn phonics, from decoding words, to encoding words, as well as how teachers can model for their students to help them learn phonics. There is also a great figure showing the various spellings for long vowels and diphthongs, this is a great figure to have on hand when teaching students one-on-one as well as a whole class. This chapter ends like the previous chapter, with great activities to use in the classroom with students to help them learn about phonics.
I feel that this chapter will be extremely useful when we have our own classroom. I love the ideas and examples at the end of the chapter. For tutoring, it has given me many ways to teach phonograms and sight words. I felt this chapter was a great extension to our reading and language arts methods course. I too liked the table on pages 103 and 104 - when looking for specific ways to help in phonics, this tables is broken down to a quick glance and a great guide.
I found this chapter helpful for increasing my understanding of phonics and how to help students that have difficulties with phonics. The phonics glossary on page 103-104 I found extremely helpful to reference. I referred to it many times as I worked through the nonsense word scoring for my tutoring students so that I score them properly. I am still a little puzzled though about how to approach phonics for older students, 4th grade and up, when they need a re-teach of phonics lessons from earlier grades. The book has several activities that I have tagged and am going to try with words appropriate for them. I think there is a fine line between working on the phonics skills they need and approaching lessons with 4th grade methods so that it does not decrease their reading confidence. Using methods such as context clues, structural analysis, and breaking down syllabication are some methods to address phonics skills at their level.
I found it interesting when the authors cited a study about the fact that teachers could really benefit from additional linguistics training. Some sounds in English have only slightly different sounds and pronunciations so a richer understanding of how to teach students phonics would definitely benefit the students. If the window for students to understand phonics is so small, then teachers in first and second grade need to be highly qualified in linguistics and reading development in order to maximize that time period in a student’s education. I definitely feel like this is a weak area for myself and I would benefit from a deeper understanding. I will continue to seek out information and professional development to develop a stronger knowledge base and understanding for myself so that I can effectively teach phonics and reading to my students.
Chapter 5 discussed phonics in the entirety. After talking about what teachers should know about phonics and how some teacher benefit from training in phonics, the chapter went on to talk about how students learn phonics. I remember when I was learning how to read, I was quite fond of words that had the same patterns. This falls under the decoding words method. But I also like the idea of students encoding words because it provides the students with a lot of the basic skills such as reading left to right and top to bottom. Then teacher modeling is very important. Students need to see that their teacher understands what they are teaching to their students. If the teacher is confident, then the students are going to be more confident. Next the chapter discussed spelling, consonants, and vowels. The text pointed out how some students struggle with consonant sounds simply because they don't know how to properly position their mouth for each sound. The vowels can be a struggle to students because some of them have a hard time understanding that each vowel has different sounds that it can make and they struggle knowing what sound to make for a vowel in different words.
But the most important and beneficial part of this chapter was the four principles of phonics instructions. They are to base instruction on what students already know, provide systematic instruction, use appropriate texts, and then embed instruction in meaningful contexts. To me, these are steps are crucial to teaching students phonics.
Kayla, I liked how you related something you remembered when learning to read to an aspect of phonics that was discussed in this chapter. I also liked that you noted on teaching modeling - I agree that this is truly a key component to any instruction. I also stated in my post that the principles of phonics instruction was extremely useful. I loved reading about the principles beginning with base instruction and its components and moving up into embedding instruction. Great information!
The beginning part of this chapter was mostly review for me. I have learned a lot about phonics while working as a para. Our school uses Animated Literacy in K-1, which is a great program for teaching phonics. Most of the teachers teach the CVC and other patterns, blends, digraphs, and word families in the primary grades as well. The students that I am tutoring are 4th graders and they have had a lot of phonics instruction and are familiar with the rules. They are pretty fluent readers. What they struggle more with is comprehension and being able to pull important information out of the text. I have used many of the activities in this chapter and have had success with them, especially the change hen to fox and word sorts. I would like to try the word ladder and tongue twisters with my tutoring students soon.
I was very happy to see all of the phonics activities because of the fact that phonics is so, so important! On pg 81 of chapter 4, a section asks the question: "Is Phonemic Awareness Necessary for Students to Become Proficient Readers?" Being from an era that asked this question....YES, YES, YES they do! When I was in school 'they' wondered if phonics was important. They did not teach phonics a number of years on and off and I happen to be in one of those years! And I believe that is why I have always had trouble in reading. Since working in the school, I have learned quite a bit, but not near enough to catch up to where I should be. So to see all of the activities and descriptions of how to use them is wonderful. One of my tutoring students may, and I stress may, need phonics. I have not been able to conduct my first two tutoring classes, but I have worked with this student in math for a number of years. (my students are 5th grade) Therefore, I am very excited to try some of these activities with her, should she need it. My other student, again I have worked with him a few years, and he does have the phonics rules down, he just reads as if it is one long, continuous, “he’s gonna’ pass out” before he takes a breath, no questions, not statements, no exclamations, sentence. People, especially those from other countries with a different phonemic awareness factor need to learn our letter sound if they are to succeed in school in the states. A good example might be Spanish. ¿Dónde está el cuarto de baño, por favor? Try to read this using English letter sounds. Then try to read “Where is the bathroom, please?” using Spanish sounds! It just doesn’t work!
I also really liked the activities that were presented. There were some ideas I remember from our Reading methods class, and some that were new to me. I think the more resources we have to make learning fun for these kids, the better.
In the beginning of chapter 5 most of what I read was a review from Reading and Language Arts, but I was interesting to read about how some students, especially ELLs may not know how to position their mouth to form the letter. My son is not an ELL, but he had a hard time pronouncing the /r/ in many words. I noticed once he learned how to whistle the /r/ became easier for him to pronounce. He still had a hard time pronouncing it in the word thirteen. His kindergarten teacher told him to slow down when he was saying the word and when he came to the /r/ he was to put his tongue on the back of his teeth. He worked on it and now he can say the word thirteen and any other word with an /r/ in it with ease.
Principle three has been very helpful to me when planning guided readings and read alouds for my tutoring sessions. I knew I needed grade appropriate texts, but this section tells you what it means to have predictable texts. Why you should have phonograms within the texts, and why rhyming words are beneficial within these books. Principle four was a great help as well.
I always enjoy reading the activities for each chapter. These are great ideas how games and things to do in tutoring sessions.
I agree, a lot of it was a repeat from the reading methods class. But, with a subject as important as reading, I figure the more it is repeated to me, the better it will stick in my head.
Kids at my school do Pathways to Reading. It is pretty heavy into mouth position. I really liked the diagram in the book about where the different sounds are formed.
I thought this chapter did an excellent job at breaking down how phonics could be misunderstood. I have worked with kindergarten and first grade for the past four years now. Tutoring is in 2nd grade, where they are doing many more blends and advanced phonics than I am familar with.
I also liked the activities and games that were offered to play. I always played games with my own children to help them learning rhymes and such.
I believe that every child is capible of learning, we just have to keep trying until we find how it works for that child. Having all of the different ideas to work with will help aid in finding that way that clicks with the students.
Heather - I also thought the activities were a great addition to this chapter. When I administered assessments within my tutoring groups I noticed the importance for phonics instruction as a focus - these games and activities will be an excellent enhancement to my plans.
In chapter five, the author discussed phonics techniques and strategies. This chapter is probably going to be the most important chapter for me to reference throughout my tutoring sessions. Both of my students will benefit from so many of the ideas in this chapter. Phonics is learned by the students through decoding words, encoding words and the teacher modeling. Decoding words means that through patterns and rhymes, the students can detect and decifer words easier when they can group the letters together without having to pronounce each letter individually. Encoding words means to learn to read from left to right, write left to right, and that words have spaces between them. This allows them to break up words by sounds they hear and learn to listen to the sounds within a word to figure out what the word means. Teacher modeling is very important so the students are able to listen to the sounds, see how the words are written, and spoken. It is important to share the word families that you have read in a book, by making lists of words that either rhyme or have the same endings and group them together for students to recognize similarities, for deeper understanding of how letters are put together. For my students, I am going to work on phonogram word walls, where I take word families and have a list of words that fit in that family in columns. This will allow my students to recognize and visually see the similarities that each word has and the ending sound, or rime, is the same. Chapter five gave me several ideas and fun ways to teach phonics for students that struggle with their reading.
This chapter discussed Phonics - in all aspects. I was interested to read this chapter primarily because after administering the DIBELS assessments during my first and second tutoring sessions, I could see the need for a focus on phonics. The beginning of the chapter started out with basic definitions of phonemes and graphemes - both of which I learned in great depth during Reading and Language Arts methods. The chart at the bottom of the page on 103 was helpful because it categorized various components of phonics.
I enjoyed reading about the section covering how students learn phonics. There were a number of aspects that were discussed - and teacher modeling was my favorite. Last semester, I heard another substitute teacher at a school I was subbing at, not using accurate English. In addition - they had written 'your' on the board when referencing 'you are.' It was unfortunate to see because it was in a 3rd grade classroom. Students learn from teachers modeling - especially in phonics, speech, etc.
The principles of phonics instruction was useful. It was discussed in specific sections that were clear to understand. It starts with base instruction and moves up to embedding instruction into meaningful contexts. These principles of instruction were new to me and will be extremely useful when writing lesson plans. The book also provided activities on page 114 - which I loved! These activities covering consonants, along with others, would be great enhancements to any lesson on phonics instruction.
Of course this chapter is packed full of useful information. I never really thought about phonics as being a part of learning to read. I only ever remember the slogan, hooked on phonics worked for me. After reading this chapter I see how it effects students all across the grade levels. I have also gotten a small glimpse of how far one student can be behind and how far we must go back to pull them to their expected level again as I have learned in my tutoring sessions. I now realize that phonics isn't just a slogan it is a very real part of learning to read. I loved all of the intervention techniques and activities listed in the book. The are seemingly simple activities but ones not thought of just off the top of one's head. I also can't wait to research the websites listed at the end of the chapter.
I also am a big fan of all of the strategies that this chapter offers. They will be extremely beneficial for when we have to go back to the basics and help a child from the level they need help at.
Chapter five covered Phonics. It was an easy and short read. The first few pages covered definitions and provided us with an extremely helpful glossary for Phonic words. I really like that this book has a "what teachers should know" part in most of the chapters. It is nice to read these and provides great information for us. The chapter then goes into how students learn phonics: decoding words, encoding words, teacher modeling, spelling patterns, consonants and then vowels. This chapter specifically offered some really helpful tables that showed spelling patterns, vowel generalizations, vowel sounds, consonant generalizations, spellings for vowels, articulation of vowel sounds, and so many more. We also learned more about informal assessments, such as checklists, surveys, word sorts, informal reading inventories, and qualitative spelling inventories. What I like most about this chapter are the strategies and activities that they give us on the last several pages. I will definitely be bookmarking these pages for a later date.
This chapter covered the area of phonics. It defined the difference between phonemes and graphemes, and also suggested that there are 3 layers in phonics – decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. The text gave principles to follow when teaching phonics, and one was to use an appropriate text. Including such things as phonograms and rhyming words in the text helps students see how to use phonics to read those words. Using texts that are predictable also help the reader think through what the next word might be, teaching them to apply the skills they have learned. It also has to be a meaningful text that the student will enjoy reading. Keeping the reader interested in the text is key to helping them want to learn to read. It also gave ideas for assessments in phonics, such as giving word sorts or checklists to the students.
ReplyDeleteBecause I am going to be working with 4th grade students, and hope to teach an upper elementary grade when I get a job, I had to wonder how much of this is used in those grades. If they are struggling readers, will phonics be something that will have to be reviewed and reviewed? Is it almost too late to deal with phonics by the upper elementary grades? The book seemed to present different views on this as to what some think.
It also got me to thinking about my own training in phonics. Because it has literally been decades since I was in kindergarten or first grade, I don’t remember if my teachers preached phonics to us or not. I don’t remember specific rules when I try to sound out an unfamiliar word. Yet, it seems I usually get pretty close to the right pronunciation, and it also seems I have some method to my madness when trying to pronounce a new word. So it made me wonder that if phonics rules are hammered into students when they are young, is it something that sticks with them all their lives, even if they aren’t specifically aware of individual rules or the fact that they are truly using phonics rules? If so, it makes it seem of utmost importance to drill phonics rules into students when they are learning to read. Yet, students with learning disabilities may not easily memorize the rules, so then a different method would have to be used. This is something I want to be aware of in the classroom – not all students learn alike. While phonics may be important for some, they may be impossible for others to grasp. I don’t want to get so caught up in the method or approach that I leave some students lost on the frin
You make some very valid points with your questions. I think that certain parts of phonics can be employed in the upper grades, such as word patterns, and rimes. They just may not need all of the instruction like younger students. I also do not remember how I learned phonics in school, I just remember reading lists of words covering the chalkboard.
DeleteJenny,
DeleteI posed a similar question because I am tutoring 3rd grade students and I hope to teach upper elementary or middle school. I fee that if kids in the upper elementary don't have these basics built in, shouldn't we start them at the ground floor and work them up. It would seem to me that we shouldn't skip steps if they are already struggling. They would probably forge through these things quicker than the younger students, so why not teach them. I just a believer in starting with the basics and build the foundation.
Chapter 5 of the text focuses on phonics. There are three layers of English spelling, alphabetic where students spell words letter by letter and left to right, pattern of letters, and meaning of different spellings for different forms of words. Students learn phonics through decoding onset, rime, and initial letter, encoding from left to right, top to bottom, and space between letters, and teacher modeling for students to observe and allow discussions of writing. There are four principles of phonics instruction. Base instruction on what students know through meaningful content. Provide systematic phonics instruction through analytic, synthetic, phonics through spelling, analogy, phonics in context, and onset & rime. Use appropriate texts in shared reading that are predictable, phonograms, and rhyming words. Also embed instruction in meaningful context through reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities focused on meaningful tasks creating meaningful contexts. The chapter also covered activities emphasizing initial consonant sounds, onset & rime, rhyming word patterns, and sounds within words, along with technology links.
ReplyDeleteStudents need to know generalizations of the rules, but these rules do not always apply. The Phonics at a Glance glossary will be a valuable resource in the future, along with the activities at the end. I really liked figure 5.6 that gives common vowel sounds for English and Spanish, this will be very helpful with helping ELs.
Last year, while in my children's school, I noticed that the Kindergarten teacher really focused on forming your mouth the correct way when saying letters. I completely agree with the text that the context needs to be meaningful to the students in order for them to retain it.
The question that arises for me from the text is from in providing systematic phonics instruction it states to teach in a planned sequence using one of the several approaches. Since there are multiple learning styles, would it be appropriate to only use one approach? I feel that all the approaches are beneficial and need to be incorporated into content.
This chapter is very helpful for me in regards to my tutoring group which is first graders and they usually need the most help with phonics. Especially the diphthongs, digraphs, and clusters.
I think you have a good point about whether or not it is appropriate to only use one approach in teaching phonics. Just as we are learning in all the subjects, students learn in different ways, plus there are ESOL students who might need things taught differently. Finding out how our students learn best and then applying that to any subject might be key for those students' learning in the most effective environment. I'm learning that education is definitely not a "one-size-fits-all" piece of clothing!
DeleteI love that the kindergarten teacher focused on forming the mouth to say the letters. I think it really has to be over-emphasized, especially for some kids who maybe have been saying letters or words incorrectly. I don't understand why parents/adults think it's cute when kids say words wrong or use baby talk when speaking. All that does is put them in a position to fall behind their peers. I will have 2nd graders in my tutoring group and from the little I know about them from their teacher, I think phonics will be my focus as well. I can't wait to use some of the activities listed in this chapter for my tutoring group!
DeleteSamantha,
DeleteI have noticed lots of phonemic awareness and phonics activities by I don't recall having ever seen a kindergarten or 1st grade teacher show students how to position/form their mouths to say letters or words correctly. I believe there should be more of this. I also feel this could be more helpful to students with hearing disabilities.
mjb
DeleteChapter 5 is about how to teach and reinforce phonics. I have to tell you after reading this chapter and after all the classes we have had on phonics, it is amazing everything involved with teaching and knowing this. Last chapter made me stop and say words to see how my mouth was positioned and this chapter I did the same. We think there are only 5 vowels, but they make up 19 different phonemes. No wonder English learners have a hard time. I thought it was interesting how beginning readers learn to read by focusing on onset, rime, and the letter itself, and the length of the word. They also make analogies to pronounce words they do not know. The four key principles of phonics instruction was interesting and made sense. Base the instruction on what the students know and are interested in, this helps grab their attention and want more. Provide systematic phonics instruction, there are 6 of those. What I got from this is it is a stepping-stone for teaching, you start with sight words, move into sounds and blends, and eventually teach how to decode words. The third step is one I think is very important. If the appropriate level of text is not used, it will break the flow of your reader and they will lose interest. If the text is at the students reading level they will feel success and want to move on. The fourth step in to show them how to find meaning within the text. After reading the activities, I thought some that were even at the lower levels could be used for the higher grades. Listen for the initial consonant blend would work great for a few 6th graders I have worked with. Even though my unit focus is comprehension, I plan on playing this sometime throughout the sessions as a review.
ReplyDeleteI agree it is amazing when you think about how much is involved with teaching and learning phonics. Also, for me it is a little overwhelming in just trying to remember all of them. Learning the English language is challenging and teaching it also is going to bring its challenges but who doesn't like a good challenge.
DeleteThis chapter tells us that phonics is the basic building block on which all other reading and spelling is based. It is a little intimidating to think that if I do not catch a student with problems in phonics then they will struggle with reading for the rest of their life. I agree, the four principles were full of great information that each teacher must know in order to be successful in teaching phonics.
Deletemjb
DeleteStudents learn phonics in several ways: decoding words, encoding words and teacher modeling. Decoding involves the use of rime as a pattern of recognition and then adding the onset. An example would be __am: Sam, ham, jam; they easily recognize the sound “am” makes so adding a consonant in front of it is no problem for them because it is a pattern of sounds. Encoding is figuring out how reading works; like reading left to right, top to bottom and that there are spaces between words. Teachers can further promote phonics learning for students by using rhyme – word families and modeling proper writing and speaking. I have always heard that learning the English language is difficult for people who speak other languages. Several of the foreign exchange students we’ve had at our school have verified this because of all the rules and variations in our language and words that have more than one meaning. The English language has many letter-sound relationships that are not consistent: /f/ in from and phone; long /a/ in maid, they, eight. Spanish is similar to English and therefore not as difficult to learn as it is for other English Language Learners. There are four principles that should guide phonics instruction: base instruction on what students know, provide systematic phonics instruction, use appropriate texts, and imbed instruction in meaningful contexts. There are also several ways to assess students in phonics: checklists of letters (upper/lower names, sound, word that begins with and word that ends with that sound); survey of ability (consonant sound, rhyming word, consonant digraph, long vowel sound, word with CVC patter, consonant blends, syllables in word); word sorts (use picture cards to sort by either beginning sound, ending sound or medial sound); informal reading inventory and qualitative spelling inventories. I am so excited about the intervention strategies provided in the book. I will definitely use some of these if my tutoring group ends up having phonics for its focus. The word wall of word families seems more useful to me than just a word wall based on initial letter. Short vowel bingo and flip books are two that I would like to do. I also plan to visit the websites listed at the end of the chapter that focus on phonics.
ReplyDeletemjb
DeleteI agree with you that the interventions provided by this chapter is very useful and will come in handy with our tutoring groups. I also agree that the websites listed at the end of the chapter look very interesting and deserve to be explored further.
DeleteI always think of phonics instruction being for younger students but after reading the scenario I am more aware of older students that may also need this instruction. The phonics glossary is a good tool for quick reference. It was interesting to learn that 50% of teachers that were surveyed could use more phonics training. I believe this is due to the fact that unless you are working with struggling readers or younger students many classrooms do not practice phonics instruction. I am sure this is not always the case but if definitely something I am observing in the schools. The author reminds us to be careful using confusing terminology when working with struggling readers. Using some educational terms may frustrate the students who are already overwhelmed. Decoding, encoding and teacher modeling are the 3 layers of English spelling. It is important to help students build background knowledge and recognize patterns. I learn best if I can watch someone model the process. This is probably why I believe teacher modeling to be an important part of any instruction regardless of the subject that is being taught. I have a good friend who is the speech pathologist for my school district and after observing her on several different occasions can see why it is important for teachers to understand the correct position of the mouth and tongue for producing each sound. This is something I would like to learn more about. I thought the articulation of vowel sounds diagram was interesting to examine. Teachers should also be aware of the common spelling patterns in the English language although we all know there are many exceptions to these rules. I think English would be one of the harder languages to learn because of its deep orthography. I like the list of principles of phonics instruction; it is always good to be reminded about following these guidelines during instruction. This chapter discusses using appropriate texts. Almost every time I choose literature for lesson plans I question whether or not that particular book is appropriate for the students I am teaching. This chapter gives some good rules to follow when choosing materials for phonics instruction. The assessment section discusses the many different types of informal assessment tools. I tend to always want to use a checklist and am going to try to use different means of informal assessment in my future lesson plans. A checklist is nice and easy but is not always the best tool for the job. There are a lot of neat activities described in this chapter that I would like to use in my future lesson plans. I am looking forward to working with some younger students so I can have the opportunity to practice my phonics instruction. The ReadWriteThink.org site is mentioned. I looked at this website and it has some great lesson plans ideas and resources. There are several other websites mentioned that I am looking forward to examining.
ReplyDeletePhonics is something that I need to look more into if I am teaching older grade levels. I feel that teachers only use it in the younger grades, and I do not want to be restricted with ideas if I do not have younger grade level. I am going to look at the ReadWriteThink.org website as well. I think it will have good information, I am glad you mentioned that in your post.
Deletemjb
DeleteI enjoyed reading on this chapter because like the fourth chapter, it really breaks down phonics and shows us how kids learn it, how we should teach it, and how we can assess it as well. I love the fact that we were provided with activities again to use as a resource in the future. I also found the "Phonics Glossary at a Glance" a very helpful refresher on a lot of the terms. I found the three principles helpful, especially in that teachers should start with what the students know and build upon that. I believe that phonics instruction should be a planned sequence of approaches because I believe each step builds upon the previous and without that properly built foundation, it may be too difficult to go on. Even though there are formal assessments, I believe the informal assessments performed in the classroom, at several stages in the school year, will provide the most information with regards to student gain in phonics. I believe phonemic awareness and phonics instruction is very important for students to make the correlation of sounds of letters, combinations of letters, and words. This will ultimately build the foundation for the introduction of vocabulary, then fluency in reading, and lastly, comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to present a question about the text. My question is, when does phonics stop being taught, and why? My thought on this is that it seems like it is taught at the early elementary stages which is quite normal. But why, if students are struggling in upper elementary, is phonemic awareness and phonics not used as much. It would seem to me that if this method is good enough to initially teach children reading, why not go back to the basics with those that never built that foundation?
DeleteRobert,
DeleteI agree, the informal observations or assessments will show where the student is on the concept being taught. I am certainly not the person to answer your question, but I do know last year, one of the teachers I worked with brought in a phonics instructor to help her reading class and that was 6th grade. One of the main administrators questioned her and was not pleased she had done it. When she showed what the students were lacking, and explained over and over, they were still not pleased, but her reading class benefitted and did well on State Assessments at the end of the year. So I am not sure when you stop, I would think you do what you have to in order to help the student.
Phonics has three main parts to it: decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. With decoding students are recognizing patterns in words such as rhymes. Students recognize the middle sound while changing the beginning letter. Encoding is how learning how to read. In English, students read left to right, top to bottom. It is important that students learn the rules of how to read and follow encoding. Teacher modeling consist of the teacher demonstrating proficient verbal and writing skills, along with teaching word families. When I work in the kindergarten rooms most teachers have a 20 -30 minute phonics/phonemic awareness block. The students work on word families, and have a letter of the week. This block is important for the students so that can work on their phonics skills. Beyond first grade, I am not aware of what teachers do for phonics. I am tutoring fourth grade boys, and I am kind of relieved that I am not focusing on phonics with them. If this skill is not taught at a young age, students regardless of what grade level they are in can struggle. I feel I would be stumped to find ways to teach phonics to older students. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteCassy,
ReplyDeleteGood overview of the 3 main parts. I have substituted in kindergarten classrooms that also have a letter of the week. I am tutoring 4th grade girls and also feel a relief about not focusing on phonics...which should probably tell me that is the area I need to practice! I think some of the activities in the textbook could be used with older students too. We should visit after our first 2 sessions since we have the same age children. Good luck to you, Kara
This chapter starts out by saying that school districts must demonstrate student growth in phonics to qualify for federal funds. I think this statement shows how important learning phonics is in the schools and as a student. Students learn about phonics through three layers which are: decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. It is important to assess what students already know and then build on their prior knowledge. This is one of four principles that you use when teaching phonics instruction. This chapter also provides different activities that you can use.
ReplyDeleteOne question I have would be is a word wall basically mandatory now in elementary class rooms because you see them in every room? I don't remember having word walls in school but maybe I just didn't pay enough attention.
I look at the issue of teacher modeling different every time I read about it because it is so important for us as teachers to model and talk about the students writing and for us to talk the appropriate way so that they hear words said correctly.
In my own experience I can relate back to my previous internship and seeing the teacher use flashcards to help the students to learn their phonics and how to say words. The students practiced saying words all the time which I think is important because you only get better with practice.
Phonics instruction is of course very important, and it is amazing how much of a difference federal funding can make in school instruction, and how much it is impacted by student improvement. I love the activities that go along with all of the chapters. So many of them are very relevant, and would be great to use in our tutoring sessions. That is a great question about word walls. I see exactly where you are coming from. It seems to be a very emergent practice that I don’t remember when I was in school either. However, I think that it is a great thing to have in a classroom. It is amazing to me as well, the different ways for teacher modeling, though they all have the same purpose. Like you said it is very important and something that all teachers must do so they can be fully effective in their teaching. I have seen a lot of sight word practice as well. I have been able to tell the more effective ways from the less effective ways in some of the classrooms I have been in. it has been very interesting.
DeleteI agree with you that phonics is extremely important. I do not really agree with it being tied directly to federal funding. I also like your comment about word walls. I too do not remember them being used in classrooms when I was growing up, but I think they are an amazing asset now. I use word walls in my classes that I work in now and the kids love them. I also agree with you that sight words are critical. I think that the more sight words a child can get down, the better they will be at not only reading but comprehending as well.
Deletethanks,
Julie Copeland
For my word wall, I use them at a level where students can interact with the words. My word wall is located under my SMARTboard and the words are attached with magnets so that the students can take the words off and use them and then put them back.
DeleteIn the past, I've used chunking word walls that reinforce word families.
mjb
DeleteChapter 5 is about phonics and how we can better the phonics instruction by knowing the rules that students tend to have problems with. I thought that the section on the four principals was really helpful and was full of wonderful useful information in phonics instruction. The section on assessments allowed me to make more sense of the different kinds of testing we are doing with our students this first week of tutoring sessions. I thought that the surveys section and the word sorts sections were really helpful and has some great ideas to go along with it.
ReplyDeleteThough I know how important individualized instruction is really helpful, and important, this chapter started out by talking about how phonics instruction as a whole-class setting is almost completely ineffective because of the leveling differences and lack of background knowledge. I thought that the debate of whether or not phonics instruction was needed for older students was different as well. Though it is important for students to work on vocabulary and comprehension, without having that letter-sound relationship they will now be able to understand the vocabulary or comprehend what is being read. I was always confused when letters y and w were considered a vowel. The explanation on page 106 was really helpful in helping me understand that.
This chapter mentioned a few times about how making the material meaningful to the students will help them be able to decode words. When talking about students recognizing certain phonemes to have a certain sound it make me think of the phonics dance that has been talked about by Ms. Stoppel in the recordings, as well as it being performed by the class that I am currently interning in for social studies. Helping students recognize these, is so helpful and essential when learning to read.
I di not have any questions over this chapter.
Brenna-
DeleteI also thought that the section on assessments was helpful as well and with the videos and that section, I have a better understanding on what is to be expected of me and of the students. There has been so much material to learn for this course and we have had to learn it fast! I am so glad the book along side the videos have helped clear it up!
I also find it interesting that phonics instruction in an entire class setting is literally ineffective. I can see why it would be more beneficial to use phonics with IEP’s rather than as a group. Many students pick up on general phonics principles very quickly, while others tend to struggle. At this point to we hold back some students while trying to catch others up, or do we move on and let other students continue to struggle. Could this be an underlining factor in middle school students still reading at a 4th grade level, I don’t know, but it is worth discussion.
Deletemjb
DeleteChapter 5 was an introduction into phonics. The text describes the ways that students learn phonics with decoding, encoding, and teacher modeling. Much can also be said about patterns within the English language. The chapter goes on to discuss the principles of phonics instruction which include, basing instruction on what the students know, providing systematic phonics instruction, using appropriate texts, and embedding instruction in meaningful contexts. The chapter also discusses forms of assessment and list many activities to help us teach phonics.
ReplyDeleteI understand that phonics instruction is generally designed for younger elementary students, yet I feel there are some students who never learned phonics when they were younger. I know some 8th grade students who can’t read, and I don’t know if it has to do with phonics or phonemic awareness, but I am curious to why they haven’t learned how to read fluently by the 8th grade. I feel like I was pretty lucky growing up, my mother taught me how to read before I ever started school. I don’t remember all the specifics, but I do vaguely remember her reading to me every night before bed, and her making me go through flash cards of I think letters and words, but I can’t be for sure. I do find it funny that one of my earliest memories revolves around teaching and learning.
I remember struggling with phonics as a first grade student. For one I ALWAYS confused "j" and "g." It was very frustrating for me. It was odd that I could read just fine but when you asked me questions about the sounds letters made I did not get it. Of course my memory is probably not completely spot on but I definitely remember the frustration. I am still not a big fan of phonics. My biggest problem now is remembering what everything is called, because as a substitute I am not in the same classroom all the time. I am sure that I will be fine if I teach a lower grade though as it won't take me long to remember it when I am using it every day!
DeleteChris,
DeleteI wonder also how to re-teach some of these phonics skills to older students who struggle with reading. I have seen many upper elementary grade students struggle through a page and it always cause me to wonder what I could do as a teacher to help them read better and catch these reading problems earlier. I struggled with phonics as a child because I was not taught with that method, but somehow overcame it to be a good reader. Now as I read through these chapters, I keep having moments of “that is why we pronounce it that way.” I would like to enable my students to understand phonics and use it well, rather than take years to sink in.
mjb
DeleteChapter 5 was all about phonics. I actually loved this chapter. I'm not trying to sound coincided, but English is my best subject. My husband calls me the Grammar Natzi! So I always love reading other ways to help students with their phonics. I know phonics does not come natural to some people, but to me it does so in that sense it is hard for me to teach it sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI really feel that it is important to model phonics from their teacher. The book describes how modeling is on important resource students can use to get better in phonics.
My favorite section of the chapter would have to be the intervention strategies. It is so helpful to know that not only are we being taught the correct way to teach phonics but there are strategies that can be useful not only during tutoring but as teachers as well.
I think you are right in reference to the modeling aspect. I think that a teacher has to be the example in all he or she does within the classroom. Phonics is just one of the many things. I have been working as a para educator for a while now and I have been in many different classes. One teacher that I worked with did not pronounce words clearly and had trouble with her own phonics. As a result of this, the children within the classroom struggled as well. It was very difficult for them to learn the correct way of pronouncing and reading words. I attribute this directly to the teacher's modeling.
Deletethanks,
Julie Copeland
This week we were to read chapter 5 which was titled Phonics. The chapter began by defining graphophonic system and grapheme. I believe this was a great start, as it laid the foundation for the rest of the chapter. The chapter then went on to explain how students learn phonics, by decoding words, encoding words, teacher modeling, English spelling patterns, and principles of phonics instruction. I really enjoyed the principles of phonics instruction. I thought it laid out exactly what we as teachers need to do. Basing the instruction on what students know, providing systematic instruction, using appropriate texts, and embedding instruction in meaningful context are all ways that phonics is best taught to students. The chapter then moved to assessment, covering informal and formal assessments. I think assessments are a part of the learning process that is often over looked by many. I think that assessments are possibly more important than anything else. The assessment process is not only a learning process for the students but the teacher as well. The chapter finished up with activities. I really liked the flip book activity. I think it is a cute way for children to learn. Being able to show them how by changing one letter you can change the entire word, and also how to show them the similarities in words is crucial. I really do not have any questions out of this chapter. I believe this is possibly the most important chapter in the book. This is why we teach, in my opinion. I love reading and want more than anything else in the world to teach struggling children how to push through and read as well.
ReplyDeletethanks,
Julie
mjb
DeleteJulie, I completely agree with you about thinking that this quite possibly is the most important chapter in the text. This chapter is definitely a foundation to building reading skills and becoming a life long reader (hopefully!). I also agree that the flip chart activity is something that is a great activity. I think this is something that I will try to integrate into some of my tutoring sessions.
ReplyDeleteJulie,
DeleteI think Phonics is very important as well. I was a struggling reader and can now see if I would of been given text at my level, I may have had a different attitude towards reading. I sometimes wonder about that program"Hooked On Phonics" if they may of figured out what was lacking.
Chapter Five focuses on one of the most important and essential skills in reading—phonics. The chapter provides an overview of phonics including specific definitions and glossaries to gain a clear and technical understanding. The chapter looks specifically at the importance that vowel, consonants and spelling play in phonics. Additionally, this chapter looks at the importance of articulation and how sounds are formed in our mouths. There are four specific components relative to phonics instruction; base instruction, systematic instruction, use appropriate texts and embed instruction in meaningful context.
ReplyDeleteAssessments is a key component to monitoring, developing and reinforcing phonics instruction. There are a number of ways in which assessment can not only measure, but also reinforce phonics instruction. The text provides a variety of assessments tools that can be utilized ranging from; words sorts, word walls, initial sounds, alliteration, and dominoes. The text also provides several other examples of activities that can be utilized to provide phonics instruction; flip books, word family concentration, mystery word search, etc.
I found this chapter extremely important, especially since the focus of my instruction for tutoring will be on phonemic awareness and beginning phonics. Nothing from this chapter changed my perspective about phonics, however it was just reinforced. Several of the activities that are mentioned in the text are most definitely activities that I believe would be great to integrate into instruction for upcoming tutoring sessions.
Maggie,
DeleteI think this phonics chapter is important as well. You know, I remember when my own children began to work on and learn how to read, how tricky it was at times to realize and think about all the different sounds individual letters of our alphabet make. It didn't seem like a big deal to my children, but it became quite a realization to me that the English language is really pretty crazy. I think I became even more aware of the multiple sounds when learning the phonograms with Dr. Walizer. I do think activities such as learning the phonograms are helpful to students learning to read or possibly struggling with phonics or maybe fluency. I'm hoping I can utilize some of those "strategies & activities" as well.
I learned a lot when we did the phonograms with Dr. Walizer! I don't recall my pretest score, but it was not good. One thing I wonder about is if it is ever too late to introduce the phonograms? I mean, we have been told that our unit focus will not be phonics if we are 2nd grade or older, but what if that is where our students are at? Maybe the phonograms could be used as integration within.
Deletemjb
DeleteChapter 5 goes in depth with phonics instruction. The chapter discusses the difficulties ESOL students would have when learning the English language.It seems that for every rule we teach our students their are just as many exceptions. The chapter also discusses the importance of using a systematic approach with phonics instruction and teaching phonics using explicit and embedded instruction. In my classroom, it seems that when teaching phonics skills explicitly students seem to get the concept but when they need to apply the skills in writing etc...they aren't forget the rules and exceptions. This is something that I am trying to work on...How do we get our students to consistently apply the phonics skills they learn.
ReplyDeleteEven with embedded instruction I do not see this on a consistent basis. The chapter also gives some great examples of phonics activities. I use these during our reading rotations. Students seem to love any activity that is similar to a game. I've also read that doing word sorts each day is an important part of instruction, which was also mentioned in this chapter. I found the review of phonics terms helpful, too. Especially for testing when terminology is used. The review of terms was helpful so that I can make sure I am using the correct terms.
I don't know what others would say but in regards to your issue about applying the phonics skills one thing I have found myself doing more in small groups is as I teach a rule such as whats your name e, meaning that when there is an e at the end of the word the e makes the vowel say its name. So if the group is reading and gets stuck on a word with that rule I remind them of the rule rather than tell them the word. It seems to work and these are students who are in 7th grade but have a 2nd to 3rd grade reading level.
DeleteLisa,
DeleteIt is so true that ESOL students have a lot of trouble learning English because there are so many rules and just as many that contradict those. It can be very confusing!
~Lori
Jeanette,
I agree with you that it is very effective to remind students of the rules when they are reading instead of just telling them the word.(if they have been taught the rules)!
~Lori
mjb
DeleteThis chapter in our DeVries text is all about phonics instruction: what teachers should know about phonics, how students learn phonics, how to teach phonics, different kinds of phonics assessments, good ways to teach phonics, and computer programs that help build phonics knowledge. A variety of phonics terms are defined and shown with examples. Students learn about phonics through decoding, from teacher modeling, and learning about spelling patterns. Recognizing the many ways that consonants and vowels are used in the English language is beneficial for reading, spelling, and writing; however, the many phonemes represented in the English alphabet do create quite the challenge for English language learners. Phonics instruction needs to focus on what students know, needs to be taught in a planned sequence, needs to use appropriate texts, and it also needs to focus on meaningful tasks which create meaningful contexts. Assessments record growth in what’s been learned about phonics, as well as additional areas of phonics that students need to learn more about; there are both formal and informal assessments.
ReplyDeleteI guess a question and uncertainty I have pertaining to phonics is the area of assessments. I haven’t had much observation with this, and I wonder how teachers know which assessments to use for specific classroom assignments.
I have always thought phonics was very beneficial to good reading skills. Phonics was one of my favorite parts of reading and language arts in elementary school; it was something that was definitely stressed in my first 3-4 years of grade school. I still think it’s a valuable part of classroom learning today, especially when one is reminded of the many sounds our vowels and consonants make.
.
The principles of phonics instruction that the text expanded upon provided some great information to keep in mind for our students; I especially appreciated the section on using appropriate texts, as well as the appropriate sequence of phonics instruction. Something else I’ve learned as a student myself and found very applicable to this chapter is the phonograms that we can put on cards and use with our own students. I thought about these while reading this phonics chapter and how helpful I think they can be in learning the big variety of letter sounds and letter combinations that are part of our English language.
You raise a good question about the assessment. I think if we used a miscue analysis similar to what we used for our students might be a good starting place. Then if could be reassessed two to three times a school year.
Deletemjb
DeleteChapter 5 is about phonics. Phonics is the symbol sound relationship of a word. The chapter shares the concepts that are important for teaching students how to learn phonics. It mentions that decoding words, encoding words, and teacher modeling are all very important. Decoding words can be done with onset and rime. It is easier for the student to read using these types of words. Encoding words involves the students to listen to the sounds in the words and breaking them up. It is also important for them to read left to right, top to bottom, and recognize the spaces between them. Finally students can learn phonics by modeling and talking about writing. Teaching phonics relies on four important keys. Those keys are 1. Assess what students know about phonics and base your instruction on that. 2. Teach phonics in a systematic way. 3. Use appropriate texts to teach the students. 4. Teach phonics in a meaningful way. If the text is important to the student than it is important to learning.
ReplyDeleteI am very familiar with phonics so I do not have any questions.
The reading did not necessarily help me look at an issue differently but it did give me a more in depth look at some the generalizations of phonics in more depth. These generalizations make it easier for the student to understand why the word is broke down the way it is.
I also liked the diagram that explained where the vowels originate in the mouth. I have used this in the classroom. Vowel Town has a hill followed by a valley and then up a hill again. Depending on where the vowel is in the town depends on how your mouth is open. The games and activities in this chapter are going to be handy in the classroom.
The diagram on page 107 was very interesting. I will have to look up the "Vowel Town" you mentioned. It sounds like something I could learn a lot from. I really enjoy the games and activities at the end of the chapters as well. There is a lot of good information there that will be handy when it is time to do lesson plans.
Deletemjb
DeleteChapter 5 is all about phonics. I had NO IDEA that there were so many terms that are associated with phonics! There were almost 40 listed on pages 102 and 103, and a couple of them I had never heard of. One thing I learned is the actual meaning of the schwa sound. I have always had trouble understanding that, and since this gave an example of each letter making the sound, I think I have it now. Some of the other important information in the chapter included decoding and encoding. I also learned that there are four main principles of phonics instruction. They include instruction based on what students know, systematic instruction, using appropriate texts, and embed instruction in meaningful contexts. This chapter also went over several types of assessments. I really liked the fact that last week’s reading had a lot of activities that could be used in the classroom or during tutoring. This chapter did not disappoint either. The activities at the end of the chapter were great. I love the fact that they were divided by what they emphasized. These activities will be very useful for anyone that does their unit focus on phonics.
ReplyDeleteI was amazed to see how much went into phonics and all of the great information that this chapter had in it. I also had a trouble learning about the schwa sound in the past, but this chapter did a great job explaining it to the point that I understand it now.
DeleteI was excited to read this chapter because I have a feeling that my tutoring will be in this area. I loved that the text broke down phonics instruction into 4 basics tenets. These are build on what students know. I think this is important because it builds on success, which is a positive experience for students and will help prevent overwhelming them or burn out. The next is systematic instruction. You must know what you are teaching and how you are teaching it in order to be effective. Third is use appropriate texts. If the students cannot enjoy the texts, then they are not enjoying reading and we are here to build skills and that LOVE of reading. The final principle is to make the instruction meaningful. I think this is important for all learners in every conceivable area. With phonetic instruction, this means making it fun and useful to students. The book suggests giving students different ways to show what they are learning, such as acting, creating something, or playing games. I think this aligns with a lot of what Mrs. Stoppel has been talking about in her videos. The activities listed in this chapter are great too, I’ve already flagged several of them for future reference.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned that you "loved that the text broke down phonics instruction into 4 basics tenets." I like that they broke it down as well. It helps us to keep our lessons in check.I know for me I 'used to' assume. Assume students knew things that they had no idea what I was talking about and if we assume that any text is okay, or if a lower level is okay for everyone we are doing a disservice. And if we assume that a student knows what an F250 is, the student could be utterly lost in a passage about trucks if they are from the city!
DeleteGood post
mjb
DeleteI was really looking forward to this chapter as I thought that my content focus was going to be phonics. I will admit that I was relieved when their assessment scores showed a much higher need for comprehension though. I will be using several of the ideas at the end of the chapter for during the skills portion of my lessons though. I really enjoyed the "Phonics Glossary at a Glance." Of course figures 5.1, 5.2 and 5.4 are great resources too. Well all of the figures are great resources but those were some of my favorites from this chapter. I have always wondered how different curriculum sets decided which letters to introduce to children. I was a speech para for five years so I have a pretty good understanding of which sounds children develop first, but I was always wondering what a suggested list would be for instruction in the classroom. I know I have had several people ask me why we don't teach children the letter "a" first. I really like the overview provided in figure 5.7. This chapter will be especially helpful this semester for those of us that will be using phonics as the content focus.
ReplyDeleteI thought my content focus was going to be phonics too, but my students actually did pretty well in that area as well. I haven't gotten to do my second session yet thanks to the snow, but I have a feeling my students are going to need help in comprehension as well. Because I read to them out of chapter book and then when I asked them questions about it after words, they didn't seem to quite get the main idea of the chapter.
Deletemjb
DeleteIf there is one thing that I'm really enjoying about this text, it's the figures. This book has great ones that are not just informative but useful as well. I know that several of them have landed in my folder of stuff for when I teach.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter brought on a lot of great information and activities for another part of the Big 5, Phonics. This chapter starts off with a great table, that is on pages 103 and 104, "Phonics Glossary at a Glance". This table breaks everything down, making it a littler easier to understand different parts of words, such as; accent, affix, base, consonant cluster, and consonant digraphs. Having all of this information right here on this table makes it a lot easier to look at and understand what each item is and how to use it. This chapter also gives great examples of how students learn phonics, from decoding words, to encoding words, as well as how teachers can model for their students to help them learn phonics. There is also a great figure showing the various spellings for long vowels and diphthongs, this is a great figure to have on hand when teaching students one-on-one as well as a whole class. This chapter ends like the previous chapter, with great activities to use in the classroom with students to help them learn about phonics.
ReplyDeleteI feel that this chapter will be extremely useful when we have our own classroom. I love the ideas and examples at the end of the chapter. For tutoring, it has given me many ways to teach phonograms and sight words. I felt this chapter was a great extension to our reading and language arts methods course. I too liked the table on pages 103 and 104 - when looking for specific ways to help in phonics, this tables is broken down to a quick glance and a great guide.
Deletemjb
DeleteI found this chapter helpful for increasing my understanding of phonics and how to help students that have difficulties with phonics. The phonics glossary on page 103-104 I found extremely helpful to reference. I referred to it many times as I worked through the nonsense word scoring for my tutoring students so that I score them properly. I am still a little puzzled though about how to approach phonics for older students, 4th grade and up, when they need a re-teach of phonics lessons from earlier grades. The book has several activities that I have tagged and am going to try with words appropriate for them. I think there is a fine line between working on the phonics skills they need and approaching lessons with 4th grade methods so that it does not decrease their reading confidence. Using methods such as context clues, structural analysis, and breaking down syllabication are some methods to address phonics skills at their level.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting when the authors cited a study about the fact that teachers could really benefit from additional linguistics training. Some sounds in English have only slightly different sounds and pronunciations so a richer understanding of how to teach students phonics would definitely benefit the students. If the window for students to understand phonics is so small, then teachers in first and second grade need to be highly qualified in linguistics and reading development in order to maximize that time period in a student’s education. I definitely feel like this is a weak area for myself and I would benefit from a deeper understanding. I will continue to seek out information and professional development to develop a stronger knowledge base and understanding for myself so that I can effectively teach phonics and reading to my students.
mjb
DeleteChapter 5 discussed phonics in the entirety. After talking about what teachers should know about phonics and how some teacher benefit from training in phonics, the chapter went on to talk about how students learn phonics. I remember when I was learning how to read, I was quite fond of words that had the same patterns. This falls under the decoding words method. But I also like the idea of students encoding words because it provides the students with a lot of the basic skills such as reading left to right and top to bottom. Then teacher modeling is very important. Students need to see that their teacher understands what they are teaching to their students. If the teacher is confident, then the students are going to be more confident. Next the chapter discussed spelling, consonants, and vowels. The text pointed out how some students struggle with consonant sounds simply because they don't know how to properly position their mouth for each sound. The vowels can be a struggle to students because some of them have a hard time understanding that each vowel has different sounds that it can make and they struggle knowing what sound to make for a vowel in different words.
ReplyDeleteBut the most important and beneficial part of this chapter was the four principles of phonics instructions. They are to base instruction on what students already know, provide systematic instruction, use appropriate texts, and then embed instruction in meaningful contexts. To me, these are steps are crucial to teaching students phonics.
mjb
DeleteKayla,
DeleteI liked how you related something you remembered when learning to read to an aspect of phonics that was discussed in this chapter. I also liked that you noted on teaching modeling - I agree that this is truly a key component to any instruction. I also stated in my post that the principles of phonics instruction was extremely useful. I loved reading about the principles beginning with base instruction and its components and moving up into embedding instruction. Great information!
The beginning part of this chapter was mostly review for me. I have learned a lot about phonics while working as a para. Our school uses Animated Literacy in K-1, which is a great program for teaching phonics. Most of the teachers teach the CVC and other patterns, blends, digraphs, and word families in the primary grades as well.
ReplyDeleteThe students that I am tutoring are 4th graders and they have had a lot of phonics instruction and are familiar with the rules. They are pretty fluent readers. What they struggle more with is comprehension and being able to pull important information out of the text.
I have used many of the activities in this chapter and have had success with them, especially the change hen to fox and word sorts. I would like to try the word ladder and tongue twisters with my tutoring students soon.
mjb
DeleteI was very happy to see all of the phonics activities because of the fact that phonics is so, so important! On pg 81 of chapter 4, a section asks the question: "Is Phonemic Awareness Necessary for Students to Become Proficient Readers?" Being from an era that asked this question....YES, YES, YES they do!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in school 'they' wondered if phonics was important. They did not teach phonics a number of years on and off and I happen to be in one of those years! And I believe that is why I have always had trouble in reading. Since working in the school, I have learned quite a bit, but not near enough to catch up to where I should be.
So to see all of the activities and descriptions of how to use them is wonderful.
One of my tutoring students may, and I stress may, need phonics. I have not been able to conduct my first two tutoring classes, but I have worked with this student in math for a number of years. (my students are 5th grade) Therefore, I am very excited to try some of these activities with her, should she need it. My other student, again I have worked with him a few years, and he does have the phonics rules down, he just reads as if it is one long, continuous, “he’s gonna’ pass out” before he takes a breath, no questions, not statements, no exclamations, sentence.
People, especially those from other countries with a different phonemic awareness factor need to learn our letter sound if they are to succeed in school in the states. A good example might be Spanish. ¿Dónde está el cuarto de baño, por favor? Try to read this using English letter sounds. Then try to read “Where is the bathroom, please?” using Spanish sounds! It just doesn’t work!
I also really liked the activities that were presented. There were some ideas I remember from our Reading methods class, and some that were new to me. I think the more resources we have to make learning fun for these kids, the better.
Deletemjb
DeleteIn the beginning of chapter 5 most of what I read was a review from Reading and Language Arts, but I was interesting to read about how some students, especially ELLs may not know how to position their mouth to form the letter. My son is not an ELL, but he had a hard time pronouncing the /r/ in many words. I noticed once he learned how to whistle the /r/ became easier for him to pronounce. He still had a hard time pronouncing it in the word thirteen. His kindergarten teacher told him to slow down when he was saying the word and when he came to the /r/ he was to put his tongue on the back of his teeth. He worked on it and now he can say the word thirteen and any other word with an /r/ in it with ease.
ReplyDeletePrinciple three has been very helpful to me when planning guided readings and read alouds for my tutoring sessions. I knew I needed grade appropriate texts, but this section tells you what it means to have predictable texts. Why you should have phonograms within the texts, and why rhyming words are beneficial within these books. Principle four was a great help as well.
I always enjoy reading the activities for each chapter. These are great ideas how games and things to do in tutoring sessions.
I agree, a lot of it was a repeat from the reading methods class. But, with a subject as important as reading, I figure the more it is repeated to me, the better it will stick in my head.
DeleteKids at my school do Pathways to Reading. It is pretty heavy into mouth position. I really liked the diagram in the book about where the different sounds are formed.
mjb
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI thought this chapter did an excellent job at breaking down how phonics could be misunderstood. I have worked with kindergarten and first grade for the past four years now. Tutoring is in 2nd grade, where they are doing many more blends and advanced phonics than I am familar with.
ReplyDeleteI also liked the activities and games that were offered to play. I always played games with my own children to help them learning rhymes and such.
I believe that every child is capible of learning, we just have to keep trying until we find how it works for that child. Having all of the different ideas to work with will help aid in finding that way that clicks with the students.
mjb
DeleteHeather - I also thought the activities were a great addition to this chapter. When I administered assessments within my tutoring groups I noticed the importance for phonics instruction as a focus - these games and activities will be an excellent enhancement to my plans.
DeleteIn chapter five, the author discussed phonics techniques and strategies. This chapter is probably going to be the most important chapter for me to reference throughout my tutoring sessions. Both of my students will benefit from so many of the ideas in this chapter. Phonics is learned by the students through decoding words, encoding words and the teacher modeling. Decoding words means that through patterns and rhymes, the students can detect and decifer words easier when they can group the letters together without having to pronounce each letter individually. Encoding words means to learn to read from left to right, write left to right, and that words have spaces between them. This allows them to break up words by sounds they hear and learn to listen to the sounds within a word to figure out what the word means. Teacher modeling is very important so the students are able to listen to the sounds, see how the words are written, and spoken. It is important to share the word families that you have read in a book, by making lists of words that either rhyme or have the same endings and group them together for students to recognize similarities, for deeper understanding of how letters are put together. For my students, I am going to work on phonogram word walls, where I take word families and have a list of words that fit in that family in columns. This will allow my students to recognize and visually see the similarities that each word has and the ending sound, or rime, is the same. Chapter five gave me several ideas and fun ways to teach phonics for students that struggle with their reading.
ReplyDeletemjb
DeleteThis chapter discussed Phonics - in all aspects. I was interested to read this chapter primarily because after administering the DIBELS assessments during my first and second tutoring sessions, I could see the need for a focus on phonics. The beginning of the chapter started out with basic definitions of phonemes and graphemes - both of which I learned in great depth during Reading and Language Arts methods. The chart at the bottom of the page on 103 was helpful because it categorized various components of phonics.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading about the section covering how students learn phonics. There were a number of aspects that were discussed - and teacher modeling was my favorite. Last semester, I heard another substitute teacher at a school I was subbing at, not using accurate English. In addition - they had written 'your' on the board when referencing 'you are.' It was unfortunate to see because it was in a 3rd grade classroom. Students learn from teachers modeling - especially in phonics, speech, etc.
The principles of phonics instruction was useful. It was discussed in specific sections that were clear to understand. It starts with base instruction and moves up to embedding instruction into meaningful contexts. These principles of instruction were new to me and will be extremely useful when writing lesson plans. The book also provided activities on page 114 - which I loved! These activities covering consonants, along with others, would be great enhancements to any lesson on phonics instruction.
mjb
DeleteOf course this chapter is packed full of useful information. I never really thought about phonics as being a part of learning to read. I only ever remember the slogan, hooked on phonics worked for me. After reading this chapter I see how it effects students all across the grade levels. I have also gotten a small glimpse of how far one student can be behind and how far we must go back to pull them to their expected level again as I have learned in my tutoring sessions. I now realize that phonics isn't just a slogan it is a very real part of learning to read. I loved all of the intervention techniques and activities listed in the book. The are seemingly simple activities but ones not thought of just off the top of one's head. I also can't wait to research the websites listed at the end of the chapter.
ReplyDeleteI also am a big fan of all of the strategies that this chapter offers. They will be extremely beneficial for when we have to go back to the basics and help a child from the level they need help at.
Deletemjb
DeleteChapter five covered Phonics. It was an easy and short read. The first few pages covered definitions and provided us with an extremely helpful glossary for Phonic words. I really like that this book has a "what teachers should know" part in most of the chapters. It is nice to read these and provides great information for us. The chapter then goes into how students learn phonics: decoding words, encoding words, teacher modeling, spelling patterns, consonants and then vowels. This chapter specifically offered some really helpful tables that showed spelling patterns, vowel generalizations, vowel sounds, consonant generalizations, spellings for vowels, articulation of vowel sounds, and so many more. We also learned more about informal assessments, such as checklists, surveys, word sorts, informal reading inventories, and qualitative spelling inventories. What I like most about this chapter are the strategies and activities that they give us on the last several pages. I will definitely be bookmarking these pages for a later date.
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