Supporting Early Readers Goldfields Network Breakfast Session July, 2010

What do teachers need to know to support the acquisition of reading? Read the article “Teaching and Learning Experiences in an Effective Reading Program” by Diane Snowball (e:lit) Turn and Talk Brainwave list

Teachers need to know: Teachers need to know their students PRECISION Teachers need to know what to teach PERSONALISATION Teachers need to know how to teach PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Precision: Knowing your students Using data ◦English Online Interview ◦Observation Survey ◦Running Records ◦Record of Oral Language or Oral Language Assessment Using observation ◦Reading conference ◦Guided reading ◦Reflection ◦Reading behaviours

What do we know about this student? Video Observation - Ronan

Personalisation: Knowing what to teach Concepts about print A few words and letters/sounds The reading process/ reading strategies ◦Predict, check, confirm, self correct, search ◦Using all sources of information (MSV) Fluency development Comprehension/Reading for Understanding Decoding Strategies Vocabulary Learning

Concepts about print What are they? How can we support our students? ◦Shared reading  Use a pointer  Verbalise your reading behaviours and actions  Oral cloze  Masking letters / words ◦Guided reading

Knowing a few words and letters or sounds Why is this important? How does it help? What can we do to support? My boat is little. Tom and Dad looked for the ball. Book Introduction - Zahlia

The reading process and reading strategies Predict, check, confirm, self correct, search Using all sources of information (MSV) Meaning Structure Visual Does it sound right? Does it look right? Does it make sense?

Fluency development Reading rate Expression Phrasing Finger pointing Using punctuation Using intonation and volume (prosody) Shared reading Shadow reading Easy texts (just right books) Video - Mrs Wishy-Washy

Comprehension/Reading for Understanding Predicting Using test structures and features Visualising Asking questions Summarising Thinking aloud How do we support our students?

Decoding Strategies What are they? How do we support? ◦Shared reading ◦Guided reading ◦Word work ◦Using all sources of information Video observation – Using all sources

Vocabulary Learning The more words we know the easier the task of reading...prior knowledge and experience plays a huge part in learning to read. (eg. The Beach Ball task from EOI) How can we support? ◦Read aloud daily ◦Word walls ◦Word of the day ◦Build class dictionaries ◦Work on ‘words instead of’ Using ‘words in 10 minutes’

Book selection Easy texts for building confidence Supportive texts..keep it simple (eg. Whenever it rains...) Reading level 1 and 2 texts for long periods gives a skewed perception of reading...they are designed to practise very early skills of directionality, one to one and some known words Select texts based on what you know about the student Be very familiar with the text yourself

Supporting students Video observation – known words Video observation – pointing decisions What do we know about these students? What can they already do? What do we teach next?

What are your questions?