Instructional Decision-Making Before Reading During/After Reading Letter/Word Work Reading/Writing Connections
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Prompting

Facilitator Notes

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

 

How do we support struggling readers to become independent problem solvers?

PREPARATION:

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the Introduction to During/After Reading, and the introductory information about this question.  Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING VIDEO CLIP 1 (Prompting for Independence)

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. Some points you may want to explore:
    • The words “strategy” and “strategic” are used in many ways in education. In the context of Guided Reading, they refer to what we teach children to know how to do to problem solve as they read.  Discuss how the goal of teaching children to be strategic differs from teaching them to accurately read a specific text, and how this difference affects our prompts to children.
    • Using the transcript of Video Clip 1 (or replaying the Clip), identify specific language used by the teachers in Clip 1 that signals teaching strategies. g.:
      • What do you see that can help you?
      • Would that make sense?
      • Put your finger under it and let’s see.
      • Are you right?
      • See how that looks?
      • What are you going to do to help yourself?
      • See if you’re right.
      • What do you do?
    • Post language on the “Language of Prompting” chart. Highlight or star language when it reappears.  Continue to add to this chart throughout the During/After Reading Section.

 

AFTER VIEWING VIDEO CLIPS 2-3 (USING MSV 1 and 2):  Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.  Some points you may want to explore:

  • Discuss why using all three information sources is so important for becoming an independent reader.
  • Using the transcripts of Video Clips 2 and 3 (or replaying the Clips), identify specific language used by the teachers in the clips that signal children to use M, S, and/or V to independently problem solve, e.g., “Does that make sense? Does that sound right? Think about your story,”    Add these to the “Language of Prompting” chart.  Also add more examples of language signaling independence that doesn’t directly reference MSV, e.g., “Let’s see if you can help yourself,” “Are you right?” “How did you help yourself?”
  • In small groups, participants could discuss: What strategic action(s) is the teacher is calling children’s attention to with one of these prompts? Then report out to the whole group.  Note how the teacher first recognizes what information the child has attended to in making an error or in reading accurately, and then prompts to a different source of information to confirm or help the child self-correct. (E.g., in MSV 2, Ms. Owens hears the child read, “Flour is made from wet” and recognizes she has used visual information but ignored meaning.  So she prompts for meaning, “Does that make sense?”  Realizing the child may not know the word “wheat,” she then returns to visual to support another strategy of using a known part (eat) to get to the word, and then explains its meaning.)


 

Growth Over Time:  What lessons can we learn about helping a struggling reader build independence?

PREPARATION:

  • Teachers will need to download or have available Growth Over Time Running Records
  • “Language of Prompting” chart
  • Ask teachers to bring 3-4 running records over time of a struggling reader they are concerned about from one of their guided reading groups.
  • You may want to review Example 1, Step 1: TOLDS in the Additional Analysis of Running Records in this module.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the introductory information on the webpage. Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. Some points you may want to explore:
    • The most effective route to stopping children from appealing for help is to be consistently vigilant about teaching them the strategies they need to help themselves.
    • Running records can help us get a clearer picture of the strengths children are beginning to develop so we can build from them, and of the problems they are having that recur (e.g., serial order, eyes off text, letter-by-letter sounding out as the sole strategy for problem solving).
  • With partners or small groups, ask participants to revisit the running records they brought on a student, looking for indications of strategic work done and of dependence (appeals, ignoring gross errors, using only one information system (e.g., meaning only or visual only). Talk about the strategies the child needs, and ways to prompt them during reading to help build independence.  Revisit the “Language of Prompting” chart to support this effort.

 

FOLLOW-UP:  Teachers could video or audiotape the during reading portion of a guided reading lesson to hear the language they are using in prompting and think about the strengths and weaknesses of the words they use to prompt for independence.

 

How do we use specific praise to strengthen our struggling readers?

PREPARATION:

  • “Language of Prompting” chart
  • Ask teachers to bring a few books they have recently used or are planning to use with students in a guided reading group, or provide books at various levels
  • Optional: Teachers may want to have available text transcripts or excerpts of Where Are You Going, Aja Rose?, Baby Panda, and Spider’s Beautiful Web, or provide copies of the above books if available.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the introductory information on the webpage. Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. Be sure to emphasize that praise must be specific. The emphasis is not on evaluation, but on naming for children the strategies they used that were effective, so that they will know to use them in the future.  The more we move away from evaluative language and into statements of fact, the better.
  • Using the transcripts or reviewing the lesson excerpts on the clips, find examples where:
    • the teacher used praise to call attention to a strategy she wants the child to do again at point of difficulty;
    • the teacher praises attempts or partially correct responses to teach further;
    • the teacher scaffolds the child’s attempts until the child is able to be the one to solve the problem, and then praises him/her for the strategies used.
  • Add language of specific praise heard from the video clips to the “Language of Prompting” chart, e.g., (“Very clever. You were looking carefully, weren’t you. Now I want you to look carefully on this page…”, “You found a part you knew, very smart. Now you have to keep looking all the way through.”  “You knew you weren’t quite right so you kept trying.”)  Note how the teacher uses each praise to lead to using the same action at a point of difficulty.
  • Using books teachers brought or have been provided, practice role playing scenarios using “and” not “but” to link partially correct attempts to further learning.

FOLLOW-UP:  Teachers could video or audiotape the during reading portion of a guided reading lesson to analyze how they use praise in their lessons.  Are they using a lot of isolated “good job”s? Are they using praise in any of the positive ways discussed above?

 

How do we provide the appropriate amount of help to struggling readers? 

PREPARATION:

  • “Language of Prompting” chart
  • Have participants bring books they are planning to use with struggling readers in the near future in guided reading.
  • Optional: Teachers may want to have available text excerpts of The Careful Crocodile or provide copies of the above books if available.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the introductory information on the webpage. Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. Some points you may want to explore:
    • To build independence, children need the opportunity to work things out for themselves. We need to guard against jumping in too soon to help struggling readers because we expect them to need help, while letting more advanced readers have more time to figure things out. When we start with the least amount of support, we can always up the ante and give more, as we see it is needed.
    • Knowing our students and keeping good lesson notes allow us to make good decisions about how much support to offer. Teachers do come in to prevent difficulties where we know children don’t have the skills yet to solve words on their own.  We take that work off of them so they can focus where it is productive, (e.g., the teacher gave “Mr. and Mrs. Fox” at the beginning of the text.)
  • Using the transcript or reviewing the first lesson excerpt in Levels of Support 1 (“I’m going to fly a airplane”), analyze how the teacher’s support goes from very general (“Something doesn’t look right”) to increasingly more specific as she scaffolds the child to recognizing his error.
  • Have participants, with a partner, choose a place in an upcoming book where they want a struggling reader to work. Generate a list of the most general prompts they might use to initiate support if needed and order them from most general to slightly less  (e.g.,,Are you right? What can you do to help yourself? What’s tricking you? Something isn’t right).  Then generate prompts specific to the strategy.  Role play with a partner starting with the most appropriate general prompt and getting more specific as needed.

FOLLOW-UP:  Teachers could video or audiotape the during reading portion of a guided reading lesson to analyze the levels of support they provide to their struggling readers.

 

How do we differentiate support to students during reading? 

PREPARATION:

  • Teachers will need to download or have available Lesson Notes – During Reading
  • Ask teachers to bring lesson notes and/or running records from 2-3 struggling readers in a guided reading group.

 

BEFORE VIEWING: Read the introductory information on the webpage.  Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions after viewing each clip.
  • Discuss how differentiation may also mean providing different levels of support for the same strategy, as shown in the last two lesson clips (knows to knees). Analyze the difference in the two children’s responses at the same point of difficulty, and how the teacher proceeded with each one.
  • With partners or small groups, ask participants to discuss the notes and/or running records they brought, and note the different strengths and needs of students in the same group. Discuss how they might differentiate their prompting when students come to difficulty.

AFTER VIEWING ALL THE PROMPTING VIDEO CLIPS:

  • Review the “Language of Prompting” chart and have participants discuss major takeaways from developing it.
  • If teachers have made videos or audiotapes of their teaching over the work with this module, provide time for them to share their insights with their colleagues.

Suggest that participants discuss their own strengths and weaknesses with prompting and set specific goals for continuing to develop their expertise.

 
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Teaching Points

Facilitator Notes

How do we create and use teaching points after reading?

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

PREPARATION: blank chart “Strong teaching points…”

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Consider the guiding question. Ask teachers to think about what makes a strong teaching point as they view each clip.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.
  • After each of the first 3 clips (Emily Garrett and Elizabeth Arnold), add to the chart “Strong Teaching Points…” based on the commentaries and lesson excerpts. Sample responses:
    • Use positive examples from students’ reading to reinforce strategies
    • Usually connect to a strategy that is a focus of the current or recent lessons
    • Don’t try to correct all errors
    • Treat errors as learning opportunities
    • Focus on strategies students can continue to use in the future
    • Involve all the students in some action to understand the strategy
    • Boost students’ confidence by using them as positive examples
    • Help children recognize and repeat their own strengths
    • Are easier to create when the teacher takes good notes!
    • Are responsive teaching
  • Watch “Teaching Point Lesson 2 (level 16)” and then discuss characteristics of a strong teaching point seen in the video. Then watch “Teaching Point Commentary 2” and see if there is anything else you want to add to the list.
  • Creating the most helpful teaching points on the fly in the lesson is a learned skill. Discuss practical tips for creating teaching points, such as putting a star on notes in places that might make good points as you are taking notes; keeping the lesson focus in mind as you listen in order to identify a teaching point; thinking about what a particular struggling reader in the group needs and is doing well in order to turn it into a teaching point.

 
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Running Records and Lesson Notes

Facilitator Notes

How do running records we take during reading help us support struggling readers?

How do we take and use lesson notes while children are reading?

 

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.
 

How do running records we take during reading help us support struggling readers?

PREPARATION:

 

BEFORE VIEWING: Read the introductory information on the webpage and consider the guiding question.

Video 1: “Beginning Strengths and Needs.” While viewing, ask teachers to note some of the strengths and needs that previous running records and observations have helped the teacher to understand.  Discuss these after the clip.

Video 2: “Reading for the Running Record.” Before viewing, explain that the teacher is taking the running record as the child reads this book.  Ask them to notice some of the student’s strengths and needs as he reads.  Discuss after the clip.

Video 3: “Learning from the Running Record.”

BEFORE VIEWING: Consider the guiding question.  Provide copies of the Aja Rose text and running record.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view the clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.
  • List the teacher’s observations from the running record, and their implications for teaching. Some points you may want to consider:
    • Note that the analysis is not just deciding whether the child used M, S, or V. It is using this and a great deal of other information to recognize patterns in the child’s processing; e.g., that he is cross-checking before he makes an error in several places (build, climb a tree), that he takes his eyes off the text when he makes the error on airplane; that he needs to become more automatic with his high frequency words regardless of their position in text.
    • Sometimes the child takes actions that show us strategies he is becoming ready to use. Noticing these helps us bank possible ways in to future prompting (e.g., st-and).

Video 4: “Learning from our Running Records (Level 3)”

BEFORE VIEWING: Consider the guiding question.  Provide copies of the Jack and Billy text and running record.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view the clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. Some points to consider:
  • This clip shows how the teacher is reinterpreting the implications of the child’s error even as she talks it through. It shows the power of using the running record to try to understand the child’s thought pattern and recognizing that we are always rethinking our assumptions.
  • Being able to go back to previous running records and lesson notes helps us immensely to confirm or reject our theories.
  • It is always extremely helpful to discuss a struggling reader’s running records with a colleague. Others may see patterns we miss or bring up alternate possibilities. And simply the process of talking through the record may allow us to see it with new eyes.
  • In partners or small groups, have participants share the running records they brought and discuss what they learn from them to support their teaching.
  • Be sure that participants are clear that, while there is no hard and fast rule, we usually take a running record on one child on the second day of each two-day guided reading lesson. These running records serve very different purposes from those that may be taken for benchmark evaluation.
  • Discuss how to overcome any practical obstacles to taking running records during reading. For example, discuss having familiar books for the other students to choose from if they finish reading yesterday’s book before you are done with the running record.  This provides an opportunity for valuable and motivating familiar reading.  Also discuss creating opportunities outside of guided reading to take additional running records for a struggling reader when puzzled about how to support the student moving

FOLLOW-UP:  Plan and schedule opportunities for colleagues to analyze running records together of struggling readers, and/or meet with a Reading Recovery teacher to get additional insights.

 

How do we take and use lesson notes while children are reading?

 PREPARATION:

  • Teachers will need to download or have available Lesson Notes from Supporting Documents.
  • Ask teachers to bring lesson notes from a struggling reader they are teaching, and the text read by the student.
  • Create a chart, “Helpful Lesson Notes…”

BEFORE VIEWING: Consider the guiding question.  Provide copies of the teachers’ Lesson Notes.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.
  • After each clip, add to the chart “Helpful Lesson Notes…” You might consider points including the layout of a notes sheet with space for each child, including your prompting as well as the child’s actions, including strengths as well as problems, starring possible teaching points, noting places related to the lesson focus, using different colored pens for Day 1 and Day 2 notes; etc.
  • In partners or small groups, ask participants to share their lesson notes and discuss any tips they use, changes they want to make, and how they did or can use the notes to guide planning next steps.

 
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Comprehension

Facilitator Notes

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

 

Why are comprehension discussions essential in guided reading with struggling readers?

PREPARATION:

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. Some points you may want to explore:
    • Comprehension discussions after reading are not quizzes. They do help us assess children’s understanding of the story, but equally as important, they help us develop children’s understanding, as well as their enjoyment and engagement in reading.  “There are questions that test, and questions that prompt construction.” Pinnell and Fountas, When Readers Struggle, pg. 431 (see Suggested Readings).
    • At early levels, we are still teaching children that stories have meaning (vs. word calling), and how that meaning is conveyed (beginning, middle, end, problem-solution, lesson or moral, etc.)
  • Review the book transcripts or examine the books used in the lesson clips. How did the teacher help advance the children’s understanding and appreciation of story through the comprehension discussion?
  • Discuss how to overcome any practical obstacles to effective comprehension discussions in guided reading groups. For example, discuss ways of involving all the children in the group in the discussion, not allowing one child to dominate, teaching children to listen to and add to each other’s ideas, honoring responses while keeping the conversation short and focused, probing deeper into children’s responses, etc.  (You may prefer to wait and have this discussion at the end of this part of the During/After Reading Section.)

 

Why and how do we support inferential thinking during guided reading?

PREPARATION:

  • Teachers will need to download or have available Mushrooms for Dinner text transcript or provide copies of the book.
  • Ask teachers to bring 1-2 books they are planning to use soon in guided reading groups with struggling readers.
  • Provide additional books for teachers to use, if needed, in the After Viewing activities.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • After each clip, discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.
  • Have participants, with partners or small groups, examine the books they brought (or that you have provided). Ask them to discuss:
    • What are the big ideas/lessons/themes of the book?
    • How will they incorporate the overarching idea into the book introduction to “feed-forward” meaning that helps children develop effective processing systems?
    • What question or questions will they prepare for comprehension discussion after reading?
    • How will they scaffold children’s understanding of the big ideas so they develop their inferential thinking?

 

How do we support comprehension at transitional reading levels?

PREPARATION:

  • Teachers will need to download or have available Where Does Pizza Come From and Nelson Gets a Fright text excerpts, or provide copies of the book.
  • Ask teachers to bring one or more fiction and nonfiction books they are using at levels 16-24, and/or provide both fiction and nonfiction books for teachers to use in the After Viewing activities.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the introductory notes on the web page and consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • After each clip, discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.
  • Some points you may want to emphasize:
    • Strategies for Recalling and Summarizing Information:
      • Techniques such as jotting key words and Stop/Think/Paraphrase are effective aids to noticing and organizing our thinking, not the goal themselves. Like using graphic organizers or other forms of note taking, it takes skill by the teacher to keep them from becoming the outcome instead of the scaffold.
      • In both examples, the teachers can use the techniques to not only support thinking, but to set up putting those thoughts into writing. (See Writing Section – Independent Writing).
      • Discuss how teachers use these or other techniques to help children organize and hold their understandings over longer and more complex texts.
    • Making Thoughtful Predictions: Note that the emphasis here is on thoughtful predictions that developed from what the children had read combined with their background knowledge.  There is also considerable emphasis on the purpose of prediction to encourage thinking about and involvement with the text, not to be “right.”
    • Prompting for Comprehension Strategies: You may want to watch this clip twice and stop it the second time after each teacher/student interaction to discuss what strategies the teacher helped children develop or use to independently solve comprehension issues. g., in the first interaction she suggests the child reread to clarify some confusions; in the second she supports strategies for independently inferring unknown vocabulary; in the third and fourth, she invites/praises inferring and predicting using information from the text combined with background knowledge.
    • Comprehension Discussion: The teacher combines clarification of the word “lioness” with interesting information about lions and follows the lead of the students in developing discussion about this. Thinking back to earlier clips about comprehension discussions, discuss additional questions or topics that might support understanding of and engagement with big ideas of the text.
  • Have participants, with partners or small groups, examine the books they brought (or that you have provided). Ask them to discuss:
    • Techniques that may help children think about and retain information as they read and engage with the text;
    • Where teachers might expect children to need support in comprehension or vocabulary and how they might prompt;
    • How they might encourage lively and meaningful discussion about the text.

 

 

Growth over Time:  How did understanding story propel forward a struggling reader’s progress?

PREPARATION:

  • Ask teachers to bring lesson notes, observations, running records and recent books they have used with a struggling reader who is not making progress in their small group.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the introductory information and consider the question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • After each clip, discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.
  • Some points you may want to emphasize:
    • How the teacher recognized the problem;
    • The variety of steps she took to address it;
    • Why over-arching meaning was key to the child’s progress as a reader.
  • Discuss ways teachers can create opportunities to meet one on one with children who are struggling as readers to gain a deeper understanding of their strengths and needs in order to chart a course forward.
  • With partners or small groups, ask teachers to consider how the struggling reader they have brought information about attends to meaning, and if there are areas that might be strengthened to help the child unlock a more successful approach to reading.

 
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Fluency

Facilitator Notes

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

 

How do we support struggling readers in developing fluency?

PREPARATION:

  • Chart titled “Developing Fluency During/After Reading”
  • Teachers may want to download or have available text transcripts of Spider’s Beautiful Web and The Fox Who Foxed
  • Additional texts to examine for features supporting fluency (e.g., repetition, punctuation, dialogue, grouped phrases on the page, etc.)

 

BEFORE VIEWING: Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view the clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • After each clip, discuss participants’ thoughts and questions, and add to the “Developing Fluency During/After Reading” chart. Some ideas arising from the clips and/or from other examples throughout this module:
    • Firm up high frequency words and read them with appropriate phrasing in text
    • Use meaning to anticipate
    • Attend to punctuation of all kinds and how it impacts phrasing and intonation
    • Attend to dialogue and characters as they are talking (meaning)
    • Say it like the character would say it
    • Attend to intonation – which words go together for meaning
    • Use books with repetitive phrases
    • Model!
    • Use a masking card to push eyes along
    • Stop children’s pointing when appropriate except for problem solving at difficulty
    • Attend to white space on the page and other text features
    • Use familiar reading for building fluency
    • Teach appropriate strategies so that children stop reading letter by letter or defaulting to “sounding it out” (e.g., looking for larger parts, integrating sources of information)
  • Ask participants to examine the various books provided and discuss features making them useful for supporting fluency.

Provide time for participants to discuss, with partners or in small groups, what techniques they have used to support fluency, what else they might try (including book choice) given the profile of the child in question.

 
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High Frequency Words

Facilitator Notes

How do we help struggling readers build automaticity with high frequency words during and after reading?

Growth Over Time:  What can we learn from one teacher approach to a reader’s difficulty with high frequency words?

 

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

How do we help struggling readers build automaticity with high frequency words during and after reading?

PREPARATION:

  • Chart titled “Supporting High Frequency Words During/After Reading”

 

BEFORE VIEWING: Read the introductory information on the webpage and consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view the clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • After each clip, discuss participants’ thoughts and questions, and add to the “Supporting High Frequency Words During/After Reading” chart. Some ideas arising from the clips:
    • Masking card
    • Fast writing – with finger, on boogie board, whiteboard, various mediums
    • “These are words you know” – emphasize immediate recognition
    • Reading the word back in the text after isolating it
    • Building visual memory of the word – “Take a good look at it,” “Do you see how it looks?” etc. – not relying on sound, especially with irregular spelling of many HF words
    • Carefully choosing words to work on – not too many; at first, don’t teach visually similar words together (e.g., on and in, like and look) – teach one and take responsibility off the child for the other. Realize that 2-letter words are often harder – not much visually to distinguish them.
    • At higher levels, teach children to read through confusing HF words that start the same (e.g., then, they, them) by using a masking card and slowly revealing the word.
    • Pay attention to the language of asking children to identify HF words – “What’s this word?” does not provide phonological information that “Find the word ‘went’” gives. Scaffold accordingly.

 

Growth Over Time:  What can we learn from one teacher approach to a reader’s difficulty with high frequency words?

PREPARATION:

  • Teachers may want to download or have available HF Words Running Records and Notes
  • Ask teachers to bring lesson notes and/or running records and text from a student who is struggling with high frequency words.

 

BEFORE VIEWING: Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view the clip.

AFTER VIEWING:

  • Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions. You may want to consider the following points:
    • Lack of immediate recognition of high frequency word is likely to hold back a child’s ability to attend to problem-solving strategies needed to progress.
    • When high frequency words are still an issue for readers at higher levels, we need to make a plan and implement it to firm those words up.

With partners or small groups, ask participants to share the notes or records about their students who are struggling with high frequency words, and discuss approaches they haven’t tried yet to get these words fast and firm.

 
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Serial Order Difficulties in Reading

Facilitator Notes

Since writing is one of the best ways to address serial order problems, and they often show up most clearly in writing, you may want to view and discuss the Serial Order Difficulties part of Reading/Writing Connections after this session.

 

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

 

How do we help children who have difficulty with serial order (reading and writing print from left to right?)

PREPARATION:

  • Teachers may want to download text transcripts of: Where Are You Going, Aja Rose?, Baby Panda, and The Fox Who Foxed, or have the books available.
  • Ask teachers to bring running records from struggling readers they are teaching, whether or not serial order issues have been identified.
  • Create a blank chart titled, “Serial Order”

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Participants may want to read the related texts. Consider the guiding question.

DURING VIEWING: We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:  We recommend discussing the question after each clip.

  • Begin a “Serial Order” chart and record important ideas from the clips about serial order, and then add ways to prevent/diminish it. These might include:
    • Most young children have some serial order difficulties – it’s a learned skill related to how our language works. It is not always an indication of a physiological problem.
    • The sooner we address it, the better chance we will help the child pattern the correct order.
    • Serial order difficulties are sometimes tricky to spot in reading. (See the “rain” and “water” example in Introductory clip.) They are often easier to see in writing.
    • Children who aren’t crosschecking might not know where to look!
    • Ways to address: show children the right way immediately at the error.  Prevent if it’s already a problem – articulate the first sound, show them where to look, slide a masking card, do everything left to right.
  • Notice the language that the teachers use to support children in correcting or preventing serial order errors. Practice using similar language at a point in a book where serial order is likely to be a problem.
  • Examine the running records participants brought. Look not only for blatant examples of serial order problems, but more subtle clues (e.g., the reversal of the w for m disoriented the child; the r in water may have cued rain).  Discuss what might be done to address them.
  • Add to the Reading/Writing Connections chart. The strategies above for using writing to combat serial order issues directly links to preventing them in reading.

FOLLOW-UP: Support teachers individually or on teams in closely observing children with serial order difficulties and planning and modeling ways to work with them.

 
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Early Emergent Readers

Facilitator Notes

 

What do we accomplish in book reading with early emergent readers?  How do we scaffold success?

See also Suggested Readings for information you may want to provide for discussion during the Session, or as follow-up after.

 

BEFORE VIEWING:  Read the introductory information on the webpage.  Consider the guiding questions.

DURING VIEWING:   We suggest that teachers take notes related to the guiding question as well as other thoughts and questions, while they view each video clip.

AFTER VIEWING:  Discuss participants’ thoughts and questions.  Some points you may want to explore:

  • Watch the lesson portion of Early Emergent Readers 1 a second time and stop to note what the teacher does to scaffolds each page, based on how well the child has mastered pointing under the first letter of each word. Note that by the end, he is successful in doing it by himself.
  • Discuss the type of work done after reading, and how it relates to the purposes of the lesson.
  • After viewing all the clips, you may want to compare the level of support given by the two teachers to the different groups of children, and the reasons they give for the level of support they provide. Support is always determined by our understanding of the particular children’s needs.

Discuss practical issues about fitting the various needs of early emergent readers into a short guided reading lesson, and how you might add elements as children’s attention spans increase.  Both teachers featured in the video clips use Jan Richardson’s “Pre-A” lesson format with kindergarten beginning readers to incorporate book learning with other important activities in a quick, focused session.  You may want to make this and/or other formats available to participants.   (See Suggested Readings for Richardson’s format as well as guidance from other experts).