New Streets: South Auckland, Two Cities

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Spiral of Inquiry - Learning about Phonemic Awareness - Part 2

Phoneme awareness is the single biggest indicator of success in reading - Maria S. Murray, Ph.D.

This video is helpful for learning the difference between phonemic and awareness and phonological awareness. If you have a spare hour (who does?) this is well worth watching.

Here are some of the key slides from the presentation:

So what does this mean for me and my practice?

Using the Developmental sequence of Phonological skills I would like to look at each of my learners to see how and where they fit into this continuum and intentionally using this information in my phonological/phonemic awareness planning.

Spiral of Inquiry - Learning about Phonemic Awareness - Part 1

New learning
How and where will we learn more about what we do? Teacher learning must be connected to identified learner needs. External expertise is important here and the school must make clear to externals what makes a difference to learners. We all need to know why new ways of doing things are better than what we did before.

"The large majority of poor readers at the upper grades never got phonics or phonemic awareness instruction. Intervention programs that put a strong emphasis on these basic underlying skills in the beginning are more effective than programs that just emphasise vocabulary and comprehension" - Louisa Moats.

Ive been reading a range of articles and books to inform my thinking about Phonemic awareness, you can read my previous reflections here, here and here.

These recent articles have supported, inspired and challenged my learning and thinking. I have included key quotes that have resonated with me for your information.

We are barely functioning, literally by Rob Mitchell

It was Joel Young's first literacy group as a facilitator. He won't forget it in a hurry."There was this young guy, early to mid-20s," he recalls. "He had a few tatts on him across his knuckles, a few other bits and pieces; he'd seen the inside of a jail cell at one point, maybe had some gang affiliations."..."He got up and talked about how . . . he'd been able to read a story to his daughter for the first time ever."

Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert - Anne Castles, Kathleen Rastle, and Kate Nation.

These reviews [United States (e.g., the National Reading Panel, 2000), the United Kingdom (e.g., the Rose Review; Rose, 2006), and Australia (e.g., the Department of Education, Science and Training, or DEST; Rowe, 2005)] have revealed a strong scientific consensus around the importance of phonics instruction in the initial stages of learning to read.

Lost for words: Why the best literacy approaches are not reaching the classroom - Misty Adoniou

Every teacher should know that the purpose of language is to communicate; that it changes according to whom you are talking, why you are talking and what you are talking about. Therefore all our teaching about language must be done in context and in the course of achieving real purposes.

clude

the usual suspects: verbs, phrases, clauses, sentences and I throw in a couple that are less well

known: reference, ellipsis and theme. But it is the tenth that

is the most important. E

very

teacher should know that the purpose of language is to

communicate; that it changes

ac

cording to who

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you

Phonics study hopes to end reading wars once and for all by Antoinette Collins

A new scientific study that aims to end the so-called reading wars has found that phonics is an essential foundation in the early stages of learning to read, but it is only part of the approach.

How to Avoid Reading Failure: Teach Phonemic Awareness.

In New Zealand, statistics indicate that up to one in four children have difficulties with reading. Ministry of Education figures show that 20 percent of 6-year-old children receive Reading Recovery tuition, though it is only accessible to 70 percent of schools.

There is an increasing consensus among researchers around the world that schools must include from the first days of schooling a strong phonological approach in the teaching of reading. There is converging evidence from many studies that children who experience difficulties in learning to read do not understand how to recode words phonologically, that is, they do not know how to blend the sounds of letters together to realise the spoken forms of written words. 

Children with poor alphabet recognition and low phonemic awareness at school entry are likely to have difficulties in learning to read. Alphabet recognition at school entry is a very good predictor of reading success in the first year of school, but phonemic awareness is a better predictor of success after that (Nicholson, 2003).

What research tells us about reading instruction by Rebecca Treiman

Whether the subject is math, science, or reading, teachers must provide direct instruction, guidance, and feedback. They cannot rely on students to come up with the right generalisations and procedures on their own.

Phonics: Its place in the literacy story

Reading is not just about decoding the text or sounding out words. It is a complex process of constructing meaning(s) from a text. While decoding is one of a set of skills children can use when they meet an unknown word, the research demonstrates that solely relying on heavy phonics‐based approaches to teaching reading can often result in children achieving good results on tests that merely ask them to pronounce lists of words.

Phonics and phonemic awareness is therefore most important for writing and spelling processes rather than when learning to read. As Pearson (2004, p.225) demonstrates:
...writing is the medium through which both phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge develop – the former because students have to segment the speech stream of spoken words to focus on a phoneme and the latter because there is substantial transfer value from the focus on sound‐symbol information in spelling to symbol‐sound knowledge in reading.

So what does this mean for me and my practice?
Perhaps this quote shared by Robert Ewing and Marguerite Maher in Phonics: its place in the literacy story sums it up best. They write:

Research has shown that employing a repertoire of strategies and approaches that use and develop all three cueing systems and are shaped to meet the learning needs and strategies of individual children is the most effective approach to the teaching of reading.

The new entrant classroom (while hugely rewarding) is challenging at the best of times particularly as a new learner can start on any given day of the week. My next steps will be to ensure I have a bank of phonemic and phonological learning engagements at the ready and that I commit to differentiating this for my learners.

Otara Continuity of Learning (OCoL) - Our first hui

Today marked our first Otara Continuity of Learning hui at Wymondley Road School. Last term I invited all schools and early childhood services in Ōtara to join an Ōtara Continuity of Learning group, where we would discuss key issues and challenges and participate in collaborative PD around transitioning children and their families to primary school.

I have used the following quote to inspire and motivate us in our work "Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead.

Of the 55+ learning services in Otara, we had 9 different services represented. We discussed our own personal journeys into teaching and I invited the group to discuss what they would like to "start, stop, continue" with regard to Continuity of Learning (otherwise known as Transition to School). We then reflected on our personal passion in  our work and an area we would like to explore more in our teaching. 

I am incredibly excited about the potential of this group and the depth of expertise and experience we have in our little corner of the world. I have already learned so much from my colleagues and look forward to seeing how we might strengthen transition in our community. 

Butterflies

Butterflies
by Patricia Grace

The grandmother plaited her granddaughter’s hair and then said, ‘Get your lunch. Put it in your bag. Get your apple. You come straight back after school, straight home here. Listen to the teacher, she said. ‘Do what she say.’

Her grandfather was out on the step. He walked down the path with her and out on to the footpath. He said to a new neighbour, ‘Our granddaughter goes to school. She lives with us now.’

‘She’s fine,’ the neighbour said. ‘She’s terrific with her two plaits in her hair.’

‘And clever,’ the grandfather said. ‘Writes every day in her book.’

‘She’s fine,’ the neighbour said.

The grandfather waited with his granddaughter by the crossing and then he said, ‘Go to school. Listen to the teacher. Do what she say.’

When the granddaughter came home from school her grandfather was hoeing around the cabbages. Her grandmother was picking beans. They stopped their work.

‘You bring your book home?’ the grandmother asked.

‘Yes.’

‘You write your story?’

‘Yes.’

‘What’s your story?’

‘About the butterflies.’

‘Get your book, then. Read your story.’

The granddaughter took her book from her schoolbag and opened it.

‘I killed all the butterflies,’ she read. ‘This is me and this is all the butterflies.’

‘And your teacher like your story, did she?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘What your teacher say?’

‘She said butterflies are beautiful creatures. They hatch out and fly in the sun. The butterflies visit all the pretty flowers, she said. They lay their eggs and then they die. You don’t kill butterflies, that’s what she said.’

The grandmother and grandfather were quiet for a long time, and their granddaughter, holding the book, stood quite still in the warm garden.

‘Because you see,’ the grandfather said, ‘your teacher, she buy all her cabbages from the supermarket and that’s why.’

Rākau or ngākau

THIS. MOVED. ME 

"Do [our] values stem from the rākau (in the context of this piece, rākau is abbreviated from pene rākau, or pencil) – where they are penned merely to tick the ‘culturally-responsive to Māori’ box – or do they emanate from the ngākau (from the heart) – where they are authentically experienced in all aspects of school life by learners, teachers, school leaders, and whānau?" 

Excerpt from From the rākau to the ngākau: Exploring authentic approaches to leadership, policy, and pedagogy.

I am in the process of writing individual plans/Toi Whenua for the Māori children in my class. So, I've been reflecting deeply on the best way to do this to ensure that it is authentic and useful to my akōnga and whānau. 

I reflected on the work of Anne Milne at Kia Aroha College (I listened to her almost 10 years ago) talk about her research at a conference I organised for early childhood teachers in Auckland. You can see her video below, and her research "Colouring in the White Spaces" here. She encourages us to 'interrogate' our practice, to look at our school, our interactions, our words and our behaviours and 'step up' for our tamariki. She asks "How might you work and engage with our Maori learners so that they might "enjoy educational success as Maori?"

After living overseas for so long, I am excited about reigniting this kaupapa and making an impact on the learners in my class. While I have some work to do, I am confident that the hard work will pay off. I have no doubt that this work stems from the ngākau (especially being a young Maori student myself struggling with my own identity).

Spiral of Inquiry - Developing a hunch around Phonemic Awareness

Developing a hunch
How are we contributing to the situation? "Hunch" is an important word – hunches may not be totally accurate, but it is essential to get them all on the table because they guide the focusing. Sometimes they might be well-established routines of the school or the classroom, and be relevant to your own school. Hunches need testing.

Overarching inquiry

What strategies are most effective when supporting WRS learners with reading?" 

Sub-question Two:

Will regular phonemic awareness sessions improve students letter/sound identification? 

In your book, you wade into the reading wars and argue that the debate over phonics vs. whole language is largely to blame for the poor reading skills of American students. But you say it's not a question of "either/or." Kids need to be exposed to great books and rich literature and they need to know the symbols and sounds of letters. Where are we on that front? from The Gap Between The Science On Kids And Reading, And How It Is Taught

Over the years I have mostly sat in the 'whole language' camp for literacy learning. It wasn't till I completed a paper with Massey University entitled "Foundations to Literacy" where I explored Louise Moats' resources on phonological awareness where I truly looked into the impact this might have on children's learning.

This article written by Louisa has a host of reasons why phonemic awareness is important for reading, this quote "Instruction in speech-sound awareness reduces and alleviates reading and spelling difficulties (Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler, 1998; Gillon, 2004; NICHD, 2000; Rath, 2001). Teaching speech sounds explicitly and directly also accelerates learning of the alphabetic code. Therefore, classroom instruction for beginning readers should include phoneme awareness activities" suggests that including these types of learning engagements/systematically in daily routines will help children with reading and decrease the likelihood of later reading difficulties.

So what might this look like in practice?
From the very first day of school, I have implemented a range of 'alphabet/phonics' work in our daily routines, including phonics songs, alphabet card games and sound bingo. Most recently we have started to use Yolanda Soryl phonics resources to support children with their letter/sound correspondence.

Alphabet Card game

Invite children to sit with their alphabet card and ask questions like "Can you find the S sound?" or "The first one to find a K" etc. 

Sound Bingo Game

Encourage children to listen to the sounds and identify them, first one to fill their card with counters wins.!

My hunch: 

My hunch is that daily work on letters and sounds will help children become more conversant in recognising letters/words. However, this will complement the vast range of stories and literature in the classroom. In contrast to my previous thinking on Guided Reading groups, I would also like to look at 'flexible' learning groups as a way of supporting all of our learners. I hope for the work of Professor Christine Rubie-Davies’ High Teacher Expectation Project to inform me in my thinking around this.