Lion's Paw by Robb White

I am so THRILLED to announce that "The Lion's Paw" by Robb White has finally been reprinted!!! I just got my very own copy after many months of vainly seeking an affordable copy of the then out-of-print book. I am currently working on a unit/lapbook for the book which should be posted on homeschoolshare.com. I will let you know when it is completed. This is a must read-aloud for any Florida family (although non-FLoridian children will also love it). :)

Prompts to Support the Use of Strategies

Below I have given you the major teaching prompts that can be used with a student to promote the use of strategies in a child's reading. The prompts come from Fountas and Pinnell's book "Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children" which as you already know I highly recommend. This gives the teacher the language to use with a student based on the strategy needing to be emphasized. It is an excellent resource! After taking a running record or several running records with a student and having analyzed it/them, it will be apparent what strategies and cue sources the child is neglecting. The prompts can then be used to lead the child to using the strategy they are neglecting. For example, say that a child consistently sounds words out making miscues that don't make sense with the story but are very visually similar to the actual word. Rather than focusing on the visual (sounding out) aspect, it might be helpful to point out to the child, "Does that make sense? Check your picture and think about what would make sense." With a simple glance at the picture and thinking about what would make sense, the word may pop right out of his mouth. This promotes the use of the visual cues (sounding the word out) along with the meaning of the story. Remember the goal of reading is to comprehend so we don't want to have children so focused on sounding words out that they lose sight of the real purpose of reading. I have experienced many great "sounder outers" who read flawlessly but have very poor comprehension. If your child is struggling in reading, I would highly recommend that you learn how to take running records (which I have numerous posts about) and consider reading Fountas and Pinnell's book.

Prompts to Support the Use of Strategies

Prompts to Support the Use of Strategies - Upload a Document to Scribd

Books for Reluctant Boy Readers!

I recently heard about a four year old boy who doesn't like to read neither having books read to him nor looking at books. The mom was asking what she could do to encourage him toward reading. It got me thinking!!! First of all, the Lord convicted me about my grumpy attitude lately. My boys love books and have the tendency to empty the shelves as they "read" on a regular basis. They are not very good at putting the books back so guess who gets to do so- MOM!!! Well, I guess I shouldn't complain about this "problem"!!! I have found in my teaching career and with my sons that boys love non-fiction books. We have almost all of the Scholastic First Discovery books and my boys read them on a daily basis. There are topics such as Bears, Bees, Boats, Butterflies, Cars and Trucks, Castles, Cats, Colors, Construction, Eggs, Endangered Animals, Fish, Flowers, Human Body, Lions, Musical Instruments, Night Creatures, Rain Forest, Tools, Trains, Turtles and Snails, Weather and Whales (and much more). These were also a hit when my Sophmore in college was their age. Although we frequent the library weekly, I think it is important for there to be a large variety of books in the home that can be revisited again and again. I find many books inexpensively at local thrift shops. Another source of books that I absolutely love is paperbackswap.com. I have acquired many of my First Discovery Books on that site. With paperbackswap, you post books on the site that you would like to trade. When someone chooses your book, you mail it at your expense using the media mail rate. It usually ends up being about $2.30. When they recieve the book, you earn a credit and can then choose any book on the site. It will be mailed to you for free. I can't say enough good things about this site!!! I have acquired some very expensive books from this site!!! The key is to interest boys with a wide variety of books, especially non-ficiton, and offer many opportunities for enjoying the books. I have children's books in just about every room in the house!!!

Analyzing Running Records

There are three main cue sources that good readers use to help them read – meaning, structure, and visual cues. Meaning deals with the information gained by looking at the picture and thinking about the story. Structure is a reader’s knowledge of the English language. Visual cues are the information gained from the letters and their corresponding sounds (typically thought of as phonics). A good reader integrates these three cue sources to read successfully. Oftentimes children are only prompted to use the visual information. When examining the errors that a child has made on their running record, it is very useful to see which cue sources the child might be neglecting. This can help the teacher prompt the student to consider the cues they are neglecting. When a student makes a prediction on an unknown word, there are three questions they should be asking themselves. Meaning – Does it make sense? Structure – Does it sound right? (Can I say it that way in the English language?) Visual – Does it look right? To analyze the errors on a running record, you need to have the book and the running record. On the running record form, are columns for MSV (Meaning, Structure, and Visual) which you will use for the analysis. Write MSV in the MSV column on the corresponding line of the error/s. For each error, you will determine which cues the child used to make the error and circle the letter. For example, if the child used meaning, circle M. To do the analysis, read the text up until the error and ask yourself, is there evidence for this error that the child used meaning for his prediction, then structure, and last visual. For each cue used, circle it. For self-corrections, analyze the error before the child corrected himself. Then put MSV in the column next to the error column (the self-correction column) and determine which cue MSV was used for the self-correction. This will generally be one cue source. When the analysis is finished, there will be a good picture of what cues the child is using and which cues are being neglected. For example, the child might use the picture clues and make it sound right grammatically, but completely ignore the visual information. If this pattern, then the teacher knows to prompt the child to attend to the visual information. This will make a lot more sense if you can see examples. This website does an excellent job of providing examples -http://www.eworkshop.on.ca/edu/core.cfm?p=main&modColour=1&modID=2&m=121&L=1. Click on "Show Me", choose a grade level and then go through the different steps. It even has practice that you can check for accuracy. If you take a running record on your child and analysis it, I would be glad to check it for you. My next blog will give you teaching prompts you can use to facilitate your child’s use of all three cue sources. Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children is an excellent resource that teaches about reading instruction and using running records.

Vintage records to develop listening skills!

I learned about this awesome website recently that has about 150 vintage records that your children can listen to online. Tonight Eli listened to "Goldielocks and the Three Bears", "The Gingerbread Boy", "Flick, the Little Red Fire Engine", and "Chug-Chug in Lollypop Land". The records are from the 40's and 50's and are really cute. It got me thinking about my childhood. My sisters and I listened to story records as youngsters. A lot of them were Disney records. I think there are some important skills that can be acquired from listening to a story without pictures - imagination, concentration, and listening skills to name a few. Our kids are so inundated with visual imagery these days which as a whole isn't necessarily a bad thing but I think it can stifle imagination and listening skills to some extent. So if you are interested, check it out - http://www.kiddierecords.com .

Running Records Online Workshop

I just found an awesome website that has an online workshop teaching running records. For those of you who are trying to learn it is awesome! It has a "tell me" component where it teaches about running records, a "show me" that allows you to see running records in action, and then a "let me try" section which allows you to practice and check your answers. Click on the title of this post - Running Record Online Workshop - to go to the site. This is an excellent resource!!!

Running Records - Scoring Part 2

Now that you have practiced running records for a few days, I am going to teach you how to score them. The first thing to determine is how many errors your child made while reading. This is determined by looking at your running record. The following are each counted as one error - substitution (black/blue), insertion (black/-), omission (-/black), and told (/black T). For each of these mistakes (miscues), you count an error. The following are not counted as errors - repetitions, self-corrections and appeals. However, if the child appeals and is then Told, that counts as an error. That is why it is important for the parent to use Tolds very sparingly. Running records are determining what your child can do independently which is also why the Tolds should not be given out very much. Count the number of words for the book or passage and divide that number by the number of errors. This will give you a ratio. For example, if the number of words is 56 and there were 2 errors made that would be 56/2 or 1:28 ratio. This chart http://www.lcmdoe.vic.edu.au/public/text/learnteach/readingrecovery/conversiontable.pdf can then be used to determine what level the text is for your child - easy, instructional, or to hard. Use the closest ratio available on the chart, so the 1:28 ratio would be equivalent to 96% accuracy for reading or easy text. It's your turn now. I encourage you to choose a book, take a running record while your child reads, and then determine what level the book is at for your child. Remember that the goal is to be instructing your child using instructional material - not to easy and not hard. One of my first blogs (Aug 2008) talked about leveled books and the importance of it. Running records are a great assessment tool and can be used for documentation of reading skills. My next post will teach you how to assess the strategies your child is using when reading and which strategies he/she might be neglecting. This will help you know what to focus on in your reading instruction that is tailored right to your child.

Warning: Read Running Records Part 1 before Running Records Part 1 Continued

Running Records Part 1 - Continued

So if the child said, "One big dog going in" instead it would look like this a big/little aaa . Under the word big would be a line and then the word little which is what the text said (I can't do it up and down on this computer but see example in link). This is called a substitution. If the child inserts a word that is not in the text like, "One silly little dog going in" it would be recorded like this - a silly/- aaaa . If the child leaves out a word, like "One dog going in", it is recorded like this, a -/little aaa (an omission). If the child repeats a word, then an R is written next to the word repeated. So if the child read "One - One little dog going in", it would recorded like this, a R aaaa . This is a repetition. If the child repeats a whole phrase draw a line from the R back to where they begin to repeat. If the child stops at a word and will not try it, write an A on the top of the fraction which signifies an Appeal for Help. You should say at that time, "You try it". If they do not or cannot, tell the word and but a capitol T on the bottom of the fraction. This stands for a told. The last convention is used sparingly. It is when the child gets in a complete muddle. You say "Try that again" and point to the part. Brackets are put around the part you are having them retry and TTA is written next to it. This should be used once during a running record at best. When you take the running record, you will start a new line when the book starts a new line. So on page 13 of "Go Dog Go" there are two lines 1. A green dog 2. on a yellow tree. So the checks for correct reading would be aaa and then a new line aaaa. When the child is trying to solve a word record what you hear on the top of the fraction. For example, if he/she sounds out the word, write the sounds they make with lower case letters. If he/she spells out the word, write the letters in capitals. So if he/she sounds out cat correctly before saying cat it would look like this c-a-t a /cat. If he/she sounds it out incorrectly, it would look like this - c-o-t/cat . One last thing, if the child makes a mistake and then corrects it, you put an sc next to the correction like this - cot sc/cat. There is a recording sheet at this website which can be used for running records - http://www.eworkshop.on.ca/edu/pdf/RunningRecordSheet.pdf . Okay, take a deep breath, I hope I haven't lost you!!! This is very easy after practicing a few times. Please don't dismiss Running Records without giving it a try! IT IS SUCH A VALUABLE TOOL!!! Practice for a few days and then I will teach how to score it. If you want to read some more about Running Records, this is good site http://10ss.qtp.nsw.edu.au/ELO/stage1/module3/home.html .

Running Records Part 1

Yesterday I talked about matching your child to an appropriate level of book and promised to teach you how to do that. Today I am going to teach you how to do a running record. Running records are a way to record your child while he/she is reading to determine two things. First, is the book at your child's independent (94-100% accuracy), instructional (90-94%), or hard (89-0%) level? Second, it will help you determine what strategies your child is using while reading and what strategies your child is neglecting. Knowing the strategies used and neglected will help you to know what you need to emphasize in his/her reading instruction. In my college class, I teach pre-service teachers how to use this tool. It enables them to teach specifically to the needs of each child. Many teachers do not use this, however. As home school parents we have the perfect opportunity to tailor instruction straight to our childrens' needs. This tool makes it possible. So, this first lesson will teach the conventions of running records. This link gives the conventions that I will describing so please refer to it as I go along - http://10ss.qtp.nsw.edu.au/ELO/stage1/module3/convPrint.html. Running records are kind of like shorthand. It is a record of your child's reading without any intervention from you thus showing what he/she can do and is one of the best informal assessments of reading. The first mark to learn is correct reading. For each word read correctly, you will give a check for the word. So if the book said, "One little dog going in" and the child read it accurately, you would have five checks aaaaa. For anything other than correct reading the symbol will be like a fraction. On the top will be what the child said and on the bottom will be the actual text. (I have to break this up b/c it won't fit on one post - continued above)

Matching Your Child to Appropriate Reading Material

For any child there are three levels of reading material - independent, instructional, and hard. Children should have ample opportunity to read independent books which require little help from an outside source. This helps build their confidence and enjoyment for reading. The second level of reading is instructional. This is text that a child can read with a bit of support. This means that they can read most of the story but have some learning opportunities. These teachable moments are valuable in propeling the child's reading progress forward. Hard material is to hard for the child affording little opportunity for progress as there is "to much work" involved with the story and can be very discouraging. The goal for reading instruction time is to have your child reading at an instructional level. This is based on Vygotsky's theory of proximal development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zone_of_proximal_development . It is not necessary to used a packaged reading curriculum to match your child to text that is instructional. As a matter fact, some packaged curriculums may be to low or to high. There are many lists of books on the internet which are leveled by alphabet - A through Z. The approximate grade levels that correlate to the letters can be viewed here - http://www.rondout.k12.ny.us/Levels%20guide.htm . Once you determine your child's instructional level, then you can find books at the library that correspond. The goal would be to progress up through the letters. Easy books are read with 94-100%, Instructional is 90-94% accuracy, and Hard is 89% or less. I am including several links of leveled book lists but there are many more that you can find simply by googling "leveled book lists" - http://home.comcast.net/~ngiansante/ , http://hanover.k12.va.us/rpes/reading/Leveled%20Book%20List%20_summer_.pdf , and http://web.jordan.k12.ut.us/oes/readingcorner/leveledbooks.html . My next post will talk about running records which are means of determining the accuracy of any book your child is reading. That will enable to determine what level your reading material is at for your child - independent, instructional, or hard. In addition, it will help you determine what strategies they are using and what strategies they are neglecting. It is an awesome assessment tool that anyone can learn and requires no special tools other than the book, the child, a piece of paper, and pencil. Please let me know if you have any questions!!!

Hands-On Phonics

One of my favorite educators is Patricia Cunningham. She has written many books dealing with learning to read and write. I personally have had great success with her series of "Making Words" books. These books are multilevel, hands-on phonics and spelling activities. I have used "Making Words" and "Making More Words" in the classroom setting. When I taught in the public school system, I used them with learning disabled students. I had a district administrator observe our lesson and express great amazement as to what my students could do. With "Making Words" the students are given a set of letter cards depending on the lesson. For example, in lesson 1 of "Making More Words" the students are given the following letters a o c n r and s. The students place their letters in a row in front of them. You begin by saying "I want you to make a two letter word. Make the word "on". The children are then to say the word slowly and then pull the letters down from their choices to make "on". After they make the word, they are to check the word they made by slowly pulling their finger under the word while saying it. This trains the children to check on themselves. For example, if the child pulled down "oc" for "on". You want the child to discover this error on their own rather than being automatically being told "No that's not right". Good readers check on themselves and fix their errors. This process will train the children to be self-checkers. If they do not notice, after checking then the parent/teacher can lead them to discover their error by saying. "Say "on". What do you hear at the beginning? What do you hear at the ending? Are you right?" With some children, it is necessary to cover their error, when asking these questions and then uncovering "oc" when saying, "Are you right?" Each time they make a word they are to follow those steps - 1. Say the word 2. Make the word 3. Check the word. Have the child put the letters back with the others and then say, "Make another two letter word - make "or" ". In this lesson, they then make "as" and "an". Next, comes three letter words - "ran", "can", and "car". When going from "ran" to "can", instead of having the children push up the letters say, "Change one letter from ran to make the word can". "Change one letter on "can" and make it say "car". Following these same steps comes the four letter words - "cars", "cans", "scan", and "corn". When going from "cans" to "scan", say "Change the letters in "cans" around to make it say "scan". Five letter words in this lesson are - "acorn", "corns", and "scorn". In every lesson there is a mystery word that can be made with all the letters. I always gave my students a small treat if they could get it. The mystery word for this lesson is "acorns". There are some many phonics and spelling concepts taught through this method!!! My students LOVED "Making Words". It is hands-on phonics that is fun and game like yet teaches a wealth of concepts. Each lesson gives suggestions for ways to sort the words created. For this sample lesson the words can be sorted as follows: c sc s(plural) an orn . Last night I realized that Cunningham has come out with "Making Words" books for every grade level - K, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. I have the first three books she made - "Making Words" and "Making More Words" both of which can be used with primary grades and "Making Big Words" which is for intermediate. I highly recommend you checking them out. My boys are 3 and 4 so they are to young to begin these. When they are ready, though, I will be using these without a doubt to teach my phonics as opposed to using worksheets!