A GREAT IDEA FOR PRE-SCHOOL, JUNIOR PRIMARY +

An Advisory Teacher in the London Borough of Newham wrote in English Four to seven (2011) about children creating verbal stories and later written stories using ‘small world materials’ - small figures and other articles that are manipulated by hand. The children  prepare a setting, wooden trees, fences etc. or use a pot plant in the classroom to place varied animals in it. They use small transport vehicles, train tracks, roadway plastic sheets, small fluffy toys and lego pieces.

 

Children can move outside and use the school environment to photograph small scenes (e.g. ants moving quickly to and fro); a digital camera to take photographs of scenes and movement of small world items.

This is a wonderful hands-on way for pre-school, reception and year one, new English language learners and children who are delayed learners to talk about stories and then if appropriate write their created stories. (Many elements of modern education have been adapted from Montessori theories and practices. Oral language long before written language  is an important element of Montessori practice).

 Read what the Advisory Teacher did:

‘Children would choose their setting, set up the small world, take a photograph, move the setting and characters as necessary, take another photograph and so on, until the story was completed. They told their story as they moved from photograph to photograph. They had little, if any, experience of multimodal story making in this way and their confidence varied a great deal. When prompting the children, I asked open ended questions e.g., “What will happen next?” “How does the princess feel? “What is the crocodile thinking?” to extend their own ideas as much as possible. Once finished, children viewed their photographs on the laptop and re-told their story, adding ideas and thoughts as they wished. I scribed what they said and then made up the books using Microsoft PowerPoint, adding text boxes, speech and thought bubbles.’

The books are then shared with peers and adults; children take the books home to read.

Of course, the Advisory Teacher, also, either read stories or shared stories (literature-based learning) with children who in turn innovate on these stimulating pieces (for example, J. Crebbin’s The Train Ride, Pat Hutchin’s Rosie’s Walk, J. Oke’s The naughty bus).

The Advisory Teacher found that children’s verbalizations were transferred into writing stories, they chose a setting and characters, developed a sequence of events which were similar to the published story. They drew on their prior experience of stories and revisited photographs on the laptop which they built upon. Book language was used, using vocabulary and key words from stories with these new words being rehearsed. Other learning evolved. One child remarked how animals do not talk, so the Advisory Teacher introduced thinking bubbles. Another child brought to mind how zebras do not live in the rainforest, but solved his own problem and having the zebra visit.

What is great was that the activity is open-ended. The children can participate at their own level; children benefiting from seeing good peer modelling of language and social play. Some children initiate more role-play or storytelling to direct and extend themselves. Often they place themselves or their friends in the stories they create.  

Older, advanced-in-writing children can use the scenes they create to write their own ideas, matching the Powerpoint slide with the appropriate idea and inserting all those wonderful functions found on Powerpoint.           

 

ON-SCREEN READING - IS DEEP THOUGHT POSSIBLE?

Deep reading is when reflective and conscious reading leads to profound understanding of a text.

This thought is about on-screen reading on a computer screen (not smart phones, e-book readers, googling and the like). This theoretical thought contrasts on-screen reading with reading on-paper (a printed text) at times when deep thought, analysis is required. On-screen reading is there, it is used for a purpose which is light reading, or scanning, or for quick information bites or news items; these are successful on-screen reading pursuits.

There are critics who have serious concerns about on-screen reading, I am one. Being convinced that when reading digital texts the reader is engaged in a more superficial, less attentive way, whereas on-paper reading, readers read every word and think about and probe the content more deeply.  

There are people like Kevin Kelly, a leading web usability expert, who believe that we are, at this time, transitioning from "book fluency to screen fluency, from literacy to visuality". The argument continues that it is similar to the time when we transited from oral to written forms of communication. Certainly, on-screen reading no longer allows static and fixed reading, therefore it mostly likely will change the way readers think, opening up options and ceaseless capacities that on-paper reading will not realize. But these distractions may mean the reader is less absorbed in the material in front of them; they do not truly concentrate. One internet author describes on-screen readers ‘allowing a trail [to go] out sideways’.

My students at Flinders University (2012) in an effort to save photocopying costs read their learning articles on-screen. It stood out in their written responses to the articles that students did not capture the argument(s) the author wrote about, with a consequence there was a deficiency in their critical analysis of the main ideas; substance was lacking in their recordings; their writings were not passable. They are 1^st years and allowance has to be made that the type of content, their lack of background knowledge and maybe their reading experiences at school are far removed from the academic reading required at university. Also, where academics see the importance of reading these articles for students to learn the new topic, students may not and therefore skip reading becomes the order of the day.

Nevertheless,  it seems that  deep reading and thinking may be inhibited by the inability for meaningful, self reflection when reading on-screen. When questioned about their on-screen experiences the students replied that they did not highlight the main ideas or (which would be better still) scribble anecdotal notes and questions in the margins. This does happen when reading on-paper. Note: I know that highlighting and notes (I think through ‘tracking’) can be done on-screen, but it is not readily intermingled as writing on-paper.

Reading on-paper is more closed, allows more committed engagement and focus on the material at hand. The reading is fixed and allows concentrated effort. The position you read in, is more often than not, comfortable – chair or bed, the sense of the paper in hand coalesces with the sense of sight which in turn merges into, as the internet author describes, the ‘hallways of your head’. The benefits of on-paper reading seems to derive from  mood, familiarity, engagement.

The author, completes his views on on-screen reading with this comment, “Those distractions aside, though — who knows, maybe I’ll adjust and this distinction will fade. But so far the engagement just doesn’t feel the same. The links don’t feel as deep”.

I would like to see research into the contrasts between on-screen reading and on-paper reading for deep thought and analysis, as students at school and at university are being pushed more and more towards on-screen reading and it may not be the best way to go to promote more profound understandings.

A reminder:

Liz Simon's Thinkers and Performers Bringing Critical Thinking Alive. 2010. This book one book contains three topics (it is like having 3 books in one) (1) Critical thinking about children's literature (2) the information process, a non-fiction topic, + more complex, linked Inquiry (3) Book Clubs.

 

 

How to assist your students become independent network readers and researchers

At a workshop on Inquiry I gave a few years back, a teacher was surprised when he learnt that students need to have independent ways of accessing research material. He thought he attended to the gathering of information, directing his students to sites they should read.

Consequently, I could not keep this article from that teacher or from you, the readers of my BLOG. The authors, Rindi Baildon and Mark Baildon, 2008, are the creators of the 3-point Research Resource guide Readability, Trustworthiness, Usefulness (RTU) which assists students to become independent readers and researchers.

They begin their article by stating the difficulties associated with networked information:

·         The proliferation of information

·         The varied structures and formats

·         Teachers sit with students 1-1 to interpret information, using vocabulary the students    understand

In addition students:

·         Copy notes, notes they do not fully understand

·         Copy and paste information

·         Feel Google reigns supreme

·         Do not work systemically when examining information

·         Make immediate decisions relating to information rather than taking time to read and evaluate

·         Attend too much to graphical elements, font styles and images

·         Equate quantity of information with quality

·         Assume most information correct

·         Have comprehension problems, vocabulary too difficult, sentences too long and difficult to read, degree of text difficulty

·         Put a lot of effort into their use of font and text colour in order to make their presentations attractive.

 The authors suggest students need to learn systematic and strategic ways to make decisions about information they encounter in their investigations. Explicit instruction about whether to read a particular text or move to another text, how to discover suitability themselves by being able to evaluate information sources.

The Baildons’ 3-point Research Resource guide Readability, Trustworthiness, Usefulness includes criteria (questions) they developed for students to ask themselves.

 Criteria for developing Readability:

• Can I read and understand this on my own?
• Is it a ‘just right’ read for me?
• Is it kid friendly?
• Can I understand most of the words and not lose meaning if I have to skip words?
• Is the layout easy enough to follow?
• Can I stop and retell what I have just read in my own words?
• Are there pictures or charts that help me understand the text better?

Criteria for Trustworthiness:

• Can I find an  author or a publisher’s name?
• Do I recognize the resource (URL, publisher, author, title)?
• Can I find at least one other source with the same information?
• Is the information current? What is the copyright date?
• Do I recognize the author or creator?
• Have I found this same information in other books or websites?
• Does my gut feeling tell me that what I am reading and seeing is trustworthy?
• Does this information fit with what I might already know about this subject?

Criteria for Usefulness

1. Does this resource have what I am looking for?
2. Does it follow my research plan, the questions I have asked which relate to the Big Question?
3. Do I need it?
4. Is this worthwhile, or am I wasting my time on this resource?
5. Do I need to move to another resource?

Note: bold print criteria could be put in a guide sheet for students independent use

These authors also suggest that if students begin with a less complex piece it then gives a background to being able to independently read and understand more complex pieces.

 Baildon’s findings about their student’s use of the guide:

• Initially the guide was something teachers reminded students to use, but gradually it became an integral part of their research process; effectively helping students focus, make good information choices, make sense of informational texts, assist conversation about their research
• Use of the guide diminished the number of requests for individual assistance in interpreting material during research sessions.

Baildon, Rindi and Baildon, Mark. 2008. Guiding Independence: Developing a Research Tool to Support Student Decision Making in Selecting Online Information Sources. The Reading Teacher, 61(18), pp.636-647 DOI:10.1598/RT.61.8.5  International Reading Association ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online. 

One of the sections in Liz Simon’s book, Thinkers and Performers Bringing Critical Thinking Alive  has chapters on Inquiry Chapter 4 Critical thinking and the information process, Chapter 5 Critical Thinking about non-fiction, Chapter 6 Making sense of a more complex inquiry, Chapter 7 Plans for the Inquiry. This book is published by Hawker Browlow Victoria ISBN: 978 1 74239 274 5.
The information about Baildon’s work would align well with Thinkers and Performers. Both would greatly enhance student’s Inquiries/independent research.

INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMME: Learning to SPELL high frequency words

This blog is about  concentrated, individual instruction of learning strategies; instructing children about strategies they use when spelling words that often lack context – high-frequency words. Knowledge about strategies assists children develop positive attitudes, making them feel more confident about problem solving when spelling and writing and also reading. Increasing a child’s knowledge about words and helping them develop a wide vocabulary will lead to them writing and reading fluently; a child with an ever increasing vocabulary as they move into higher grades will find it easier to comprehend the more difficult texts they are reading and acting upon (e.g. assignments).
Explicit Spelling INSTRUCTION happens when you are:

·         Teaching spelling strategies to new learners

·         Teaching spelling strategies to students who have difficulties hearing, seeing and

       recalling patterns

·         Building knowledge about words to improve writing fluency and comprehension when    

       reading

·         Making learning to spell successful and interesting

·         Implementing an individual spelling programme

LEARNING TO SPELL

The educationist, Don Holdaway (1979) advocated that, “Knowing some 200 words in a basic sight vocabulary gives immediate access to 30-40% of running English.”  Therefore it seems logical that spelling (and reading), correctly, high frequency words (words that recur often in writing and reading) should be learnt quickly. Knowing frequently used  words, attentions are not on how to spell (or read) but on the content and meaning.

Rather than learning words as such, learning strategies where words are analysed for sameness and differences and relationships are made is of greater benefit. Strategies associated with spelling are akin to strategies children learn for decoding words as they read. Quickly learning basic sight vocabulary and learning spelling strategies influences fluency when a child writes and reads.

MAKE LEARNING TO SPELL SUCCESSFUL AND INTERESTING

Why an individual programme, you ask? In reply, why have children spelling words they already know? Why have children spelling a list of ten words when they can barely recall one or two? The dilemma is that some children come to school knowing how to write and read some words. Some children have good visual perception and so learn words quicker than other children. In other words classes are not homogeneous and the classroom teacher needs to differentiate learning for each child; needs to provide for ‘next’ learning for the individual.

Phonemic awareness, albeit important for new learners, is only one of the spelling strategies that children use when writing. We know that there is far more to spelling and writing and reading than concentrating on phonics. In figure 1 you will view many more strategies children use to work towards conventional spelling – visual, semantic and mostly accurate spelling.

SPELLING STRATEGIES Children learn to ask themselves these questions? What does the word mean? What does the word begin with? What does the word end with? What can I hear and see in the middle? What large units can I hear and see?       Rhymes                                                                                        Syllables Prefixes (un, dis) Suffixes (ed, ing) Digraphs (th, ar) Blends (bl, st) Compounds What is the small word in the word? Have I tried saying the word slowly ? Does the word look like any other word? Are there double letters? Have I looked closely at the tricky parts (ough)? Figure 1



DISCUSSING PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES: Analysis Dealing with differences /  unusual      Hypothesis Forming analogies Making relationships                             Figure 2

The listed strategies (Figure 1) are displayed in the classroom and are repeatedly referred to not only by the teacher but also children, “What strategy did you use to work out the spelling of that word?”
“I said the word in parts and spelt it in parts”.

Individual spelling instruction is a rather relaxing time in the classroom. Working 1 on 1 is an enjoyable way to form relationships with your children, children will ask you, “When is it my turn to learn new words to spell?”

AN INDIVIDUAL PROGRAMME MADE EASY

Step 1  Test for unknown words

HIGH FREQUENCY SPELLING RECORD SHEET Name:                                                                       Focus: e.g.,  what words begin with                                                                                                       making analogies                                                                                                       meaning
the	I	is	a	to
am	my	we	in	of

From Salisbury list or similar)   Figure 3

The initial test of children’s spelling knowledge:

• read the words across the columns to the class or a group and the children write the words.
• have a sheet (Figure 3) for each child and mark with a (√) known words and leave unknown words blank.

Step 2  Record
From each child’s record sheet write1-4 unknown words in each child’s spelling book.

Step 3  Teach a strategy

You are conferencing 2-3 children during independent writing each day and part of that conference is to explicitly show a spelling strategy that eventually the child will take on and use in different situations. Always demonstrate the strategy on a small whiteboard, not only writing but saying the sounds.

For example,       i t               was 

                                                        Now here is a tricky one. 

‘It’ you can hear the two sounds but ‘was’ is a tricky word to spell as only the first and last sounds are heard. So is spelling all about phonics? Sometimes the forgotten element is the looking into words... looking for a tricky part closing eyes and visualizing the word.

Step 4 Practise new words
Look, cover, write, check is a faithful framework that guides children’s independent practise of spelling. Look, cover, write, check will probably happen during Independent Activities (while you work with small reading groups). Each child must be able to read their spelling word, so enlist a buddy (if necessary) to help a child with difficulties during practise time.

As they write they say the word slowly (modelled during conferencing). They write the word three times, looking carefully at the example and at the same time asking themselves questions, “Does this word look like any other word?” (an analogy). They stop and visualize the word in their heads. They cover the word and write it a fourth time. Make a bookmark for each child to refer to.

Spelling Bookmark

1. Look     into the     word 2. As you write     the word 3 times     say the word slowly 3. Close your eyes     and visualize the word 4. Cover the words, recall and write 5. Check,     have you written     the word correctly? 6. Further practise,     read a word, close your     eyes and visualize the     word. Keep your eyes closed and     spell the word.

Figure 4
Each day they further practise (step 6) by reading the word, closing their books and spelling words in their heads.

Step 5 During conference

During subsequent conferences test the words. The child reads the word, the teacher shuts the book and the child verbally spells the word. A (√) is drawn above the word if it is spelt correctly. When three √ √ √ are recorded (over a period of time), the word is assumed known. The teacher will place new spelling words in the child’s book at each conference, either from further testing of high-frequency words (high frequency spelling record sheets) done, say once a month, or/and from the child’s writing.

Remember that Individual Spelling can be a recursive procedure. If the child is not correctly spelling a presumed known word in their writing, the word is written again in their spelling books for further practise.

Some points of interest are:
Homophones are consistently misspelled
Omitted letters are common spelling errors
Medial letters (mostly vowels) are often incorrect or left out (assumption being that the speller does not look into words)
This individual spelling programme is recorded in full in my book Liz Simon, Strategic Spelling Every Writer’s Tool. 2004. Heinemann Portsmouth NH USA. Pearson is the agent in Australia, but I surmise that Amazon would be a cheaper option.  
                                           

SPELLING TO LEARN

A previous Blog entry discussed nominalisation (the replacing of a verb with a noun/noun group, a single topic or event). The result of nominalisation is that older students are faced with specialized and more sophisticated vocabulary.

If it is the case that word meanings make up 70%-80% of comprehension (Bromley, 2007, p.528), some children could be greatly disadvantaged when reading texts with such unfamiliar vocabulary to fulfil assignments. No wonder educationists make the comment that students’ motivation is affected and efforts to comprehend texts declines in higher grades as students attend to academic and technical vocabulary?

Children in the early years mostly write and read vocabulary they hear in every-day speech. However, in the upper grades there is generally a shift to specialized vocabulary associated with exposition texts and many times they are words they have not heard or seen before. 

Beginning a new inquiry topic or introducing vocabulary associated with science, mathematics, history, English, health etc., specialized vocabulary and cohesive vocabulary (e.g. furthermore, although, however, summary) should be part of all students’ spelling programme. Not only will they learn to recognize the word, know its meaning within a context and know why it is written in that context, they reinforce the learning by learning to spell the word.

For older children, teachers make spelling something a child has control over.  As older students read and write, dictionaries (hard copy and on-screen) are close by! Students are instructed how dictionaries ‘serve all sorts of needs’ (Liz Simon 2004). Give a child a dictionary and see how they love to thumb through it finding unusual words, funny words (sometimes rude words!). To make dictionary use valuable show students how pronunciation of words work, stated meanings, grammatical forms and history of words.  When reading children predict the meaning of the word, “the information is about... I know that... so the word could be...” If writing they feel comfortable to have a stab at spelling the word, “I know it begins with... I think I remember seeing... in the middle of the word”. Then they look for the word in the dictionary to confirm their predictions and tries. Habitual use of dictionaries throughout the day should be an instinctive reaction in the classroom.

When introducing a new topic, a teacher provides vocabulary support. She initially shows a piece of text that contains a number of the topic words on an interactive whiteboard or similar and highlights the technical words (or unusual words) that students will constantly come across while investigating.  
She begins a glossary. In this shared environment, words are displayed, and sentences are read so prediction of meanings happens. Later students in pairs confirm meanings by finding the words in dictionaries; they pronounce and read the words (figure 1). They discuss meanings and spellings. This prepares readers for reading fluently / reading independently.

WORD	PREDICTING ITS MEANING	USING THE DICTIONARY. LOOK CLOSELY AT THE SPELLING ON THIS CHART. WRITE MEANING
culture explorers, example is Marco Polo exploration dangerous	It sounds like it would mean how the people live. They go to new places. Does it mean the same? I have heard this word before. What it says in the information would probably mean that it is unsafe.	Culture means – there are lots of meanings but we think for this information it means the type of civilization, customs of peoples.

Figure 1

Constant functional grammar instruction, discussion and practise done within the context of continuous print in whole class and small groups. Students knowing the difference between spelling a verb form and adding suffixes (endings) to change verbs into nouns (nominalisation)  - for example manage, (verb) and management (noun) - are essential for exposition writing.

The management (noun) of the firm is handled by the director and deputy director; the departments have managers (noun) in place to manage (verb) the more day-by-day business.

Following the learning students are involved in active practise activities. For example, have cards with generic instructions

In your latest non-fiction reading find verbs                                                     that have been changed into nouns because a                                                     suffix has been added. Look carefully and                                                     note in you journal the difference between                                                     the noun and verb. Multiple instruction. A word is examined from different viewing sources. Spelling and the function of the word go together. For example, the meaning of the word ‘inundation’ is made clear, the student analyses it by breaking it into syllables and listening for sounds, looking for the small word.     Connections are made which extend student’s vocabulary e.g. ‘flood’, ‘deluge’. At the same time they learn a grammatical feature, the suffix ‘tion’, has changed ‘inundate’ (the verb) into the noun form (figure 2).

Multiple instruction
Meaning       Inundation -land is covered with water                                                 inundation	Visual Analyses By  breaking it into syllables and listening  for the sounds, looking for the small word Looking at the ending
Form a same meaning connection ‘flood’, ‘deluge’	Grammatical connections Prior knowledge: know the role of suffixes  The suffix has changed ‘inundate’  (verb) into the noun form ‘inundation’.

Figure 2

Involvement in multiple opportunities to probe words when spelling and reading happens when students are constantly reading and writing. With struggling students this does not always happen.

But the older struggling spellers and readers should not be left in the too hard basket, or given a one-off lesson and expected ‘to know’.  Instead, they are repeatedly supported and reminded of strategies they can use. With the advent of interactive whiteboards more complex text can be easily scanned and displayed for a struggling reader to read with teacher support; attention is drawn to strategies which in turn help students broaden their knowledge about words.

The view that by using as many senses as possible when learning - listening, looking and feeling  - helps students grasp of words. Similarly, multiple ways of finding out about words and how they function is potent.

Teachers who engage in explicit instruction know that it is far more interesting and productive learning about words than learning words per se. Varied learning, individual attention, discussion and investigation of how words function in continuous print; playing with words is so much more interesting than being given a list of spelling words.

Rationale for spelling competence:

·         The worthiness of learning spelling strategies not only for writing but also reading

·         National: Meet standards ...teachers explicitly instruct relevant knowledge, concepts, skills.     The teacher provides strategies to enable students to connect and organise new and existing knowledge

·         Interest to teachers: Teachers are looking for ways to improve spelling standards

·         Connecting to grammar and multiple strategy instruction are new ways to approach spelling instruction. They are effective/easy to implement

·         Pursuing ‘Knowledge about words’ is more interesting than spelling lists of word.

REFERENCE
Bromley, K. 2007. Nine things every teacher should know about words and vocabulary instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50(7), 528-537.

For more information about learning spelling in upper years see Liz Simon Strategic Spelling Every Writers Tool 2004, ISBN 0 325 00589 3 custserv@heinemann.com (USA) or order through the online retailer Amazon.

I welcome replies to any of my entries.

Next teaching thought:

Individual spelling for younger children. Here will be a list of spelling strategies that can be used for older students having spelling (and reading) difficulties.