Empowering Teachers. Specific Word Knowledge A student’s specific word knowledge is developed by selecting appropriate words to teach based on the needs of the students in the classroom. The following activities may be used to actively involve the students in developing their specific word knowledge, but are not limited to: Identifying the new word, pronouncing the new word, spelling the new word Writing the new word Describing the new word using other words that the student already knows Using semantic maps to categorize the new word with other familiar words Verbally using the new word in sentences Writing the new word in sentences Creating “student-friendly” definitions for the new word Identifying antonyms, synonyms, and homophones of the new word Word-Learning Strategies Word-learning strategies are tools students use during teacher read-aloud activities, specific word instruction, and independent reading.
Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays for the Classroom. Reader's Theater Scripts and Plays Readers Theater is a dramatic presentation of a written work in a script form. Readers read from a "script" and reading parts are divided among the readers. No memorization, costumes, blocking, or special lighting is needed. Presentations can easily be done in a k-3 classroom. Scripts are held by the readers. Lines are not memorized. The focus is on reading the text with expressive voices and gestures. "Reader's Theater proved to be almost a magic solution for Griffith: In just 10 weeks of using RT, every child in her class had gained a full grade level in reading. Update - July 08. Curious Firsties: A Fluent Wednesday WOW. Happy Wednesday everyone! I am excited about the Wednesday WOW this week!!
I hope that you can link up with a WOW moment in your personal or professional life! My reading teammate (Karen) and I decided to start 2014 off right with some concrete metacognition lessons. And they were so so so successful!! I wasn't expecting them to go so well. It was a huge WOW! Actually...it is my *first* post on the Literacy Land blog. Then Sunday night hit and so did an idea! 2. I read it aloud with space between each word (very robotic). 3. This time I read it super fast! 4. We used the ribbon to help us slide our finger along the phrase, instead of pointing at each word. 5. Students came up and used the swoops to help them slide along the phrases. I look forward to doing some practice with this skill in our small groups now!
Can't wait to read about your WOWs!! This InLinkz account has expired. Fluency Activities - Sparkling in Second Grade. Facebook Let’s talk about fluency! I have a confession…I am a phonics girl through and through. It is by far my favorite subject to teach, which is probably a good thing since I teach first grade. I honestly do not remember how I was taught to read, I may have been in the transition of whole-word into the “Open Court” way of phonics. Now being in first, we love digging in deep and finding, reading, studying, singing those patterns.
But something I noticed was, we were studying the words and the patterns. Here are 5 tips to teaching fluency… Repeated Reads First things first, everyone knows to better your fluency, you have to practice it over and over! During our small-group time I use printable books so we can write, color, highlight, underline, circle all over that book and make it ours (confidence to read comes when students take ownership, printable books are helpful to give them a sense of “mine”).
*Note: I always have my students read EVERY word when they are hunting for something. Making Sense of Words That Don't. Sight words. Demon words. Red words. Irregular words. Maverick words. There is a lot of instructional time spent teaching students to memorize words that do not seem to "play fair" or are just plain crazy. What would you think if I told you there was a way to teach the sense for what has been long taught as nonsensical? For the purposes of this post, I'll define a sight word as a word that does not have a readily obvious sound-to-symbol correlation. Miraculous Morphemes It will take only two words to demonstrate this concept. Linguistics is a science, and orthography should be taught that way. Teaching Words That Defy Logic First, there must be a conversation about what the word means. After reaching a consensus about the meaning of the word, it's time to check out its history or etymology at Etymonline.
Now that the students understand the spelling of this word, they are more likely to spell it correctly and also be able to read it aloud. Entering the Matrix. Finally in First: Decoding Strategies for PARENTS & more! I am pretty excited to share with you something I have been working on all summer! As a first grade teacher, I have had parents tell me that they WANT to help their child learn to read but they just don't know HOW. Most parents rely on saying, "Sound it out," or simply correcting the word for the student. One parent said to me last year, "I didn't go to school for this like you did. I don't even know what you mean by decoding. " So, I made a Decoding Strategy Quick-Reference Guide for the parents to keep at home.
The parent of one of the boys I tutor tried it out for me this summer and she said it was SO helpful! I will go over it at Back-to-School-Night and show them the hand gestures I use. I am also excited to have copies laminated to refer to when I am teaching or coaching students during Guided Reading. I made matching icons to put on my CAFE board when I teach the strategy. I also made Flip the Sounds Posters for my phonics bulletin board. So what do you think? For the Good of All Students: Language Arts: Fluency. Ideas on Teaching Fluency After being introduced to the acronym EARS (Expression, Accuracy, Rate and Smoothness) by an incredible reading teacher (Georgia), it became a pivotal part of how I teach fluency.
Personal philosophies that have grown from this: Expression is so much more than just voice inflection. It can truly indicate comprehension as the students adjust their voice to show the mood/tone of the text.Accuracy matters most when our mistakes change the meaning of the text.Rate shows our ability to move through the text at a good pace...but speed loses meaning when it detracts from the expression. Smoothness shows that we can read in long meaningful phrases, heading punctuation. CLICK HERE for the Fluency Rubric Another great reading teacher (Bev) introduced me to the idea of having students use content-based reading passages to practice their fluency (and comprehension). Teaching Fluency Mini-Lessons Fluent readers are better at comprehending their reading. Foundation Strategy. Fluency Rubric. 5 Partner Reading Activities for K-1 Students - Learning at the Primary Pond.
Teaching Kindergarten or first grade students to read with a partner is easy, right? You just tell them to find a friend, they sit down together, and they start reading immediately…right? Well…not so much. At least not with my students, anyway! (If it really is that easy for you, please let me come observe in your classroom!) I’ve seen just about everything go wrong – goofing off, arguing about which book to pick, biting each other (yes, really), talking about everything except the book, and the list goes on. Despite its challenges, partner reading can be an awesome addition to your reading block. Develop fluency (less fluent readers can learn from and practice with more fluent readers)Improve comprehension (by giving students thinking and talking time with a partner)Practice decoding skillsIncrease overall reading engagement Of course, primary kiddos need a LOT of support so that they can be successful with this routine!
Photo Credit: WaveBreakMedia/Shutterstock.