Phases of Literacy Development |
We know from research that children begin their development with language as early as when they are developing in the womb. These language skills form the foundation of their ability to become oral communicators as well as good readers and writers. Children form their understandings about language, reading and writing from their home and environmental experiences with language and with the print they experience around them on a day to day basis. Click on the links below to see the characteristics of each stage of literacy development. You will find many great activities to do with children in each stage of literacy development in my book: Threads of Reading: Strategies for Literacy Development.
1. Exploratory Stage
2. Experimental Stage
3. Early Literacy Stage
4. Transitional Literacy Stage
5. Independent/Productive Reading Stage
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Identifying Letters |
| One of the most important concepts that beginning readers need to master is the ability to identify upper and lower case letters as well as link at least one sound that each letter makes. Many children come to school knowing their letters and sounds but many do not - especially children from high poverty or second language homes. Research shows that children who know their letters and sounds have a much easier time learning to read than children who have not mastered letter identification. A quick way to tell who needs additional work with letters and sounds is to ask children to identify letter names and give a sound that the letter makes. You can download a simple assessment form for checking student skill master as well as flash cards that you can give to parents or classroom tutors so they can continue to help your students practice identifying the letters in both upper as well as lower case form. Periodic rechecks can track progress and determine who needs addtiional work with letters and sounds. |
Upper Case Letter Assessment Form Download |
| Lower Case Letter Assessment Form Download |
| Upper and Lower Case Flash Card Download |
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Using Running Records in the Primary Classroom |
Marie Clay introduced the idea of taking a running record as a child reads orally to document a child's reading behavior in the early 1980. She demonstrated that having a good understanding of a child's strengths and areas of struggle could help the reading teacher develop targeted instruction to help the child grow into a strong and capable reader. Today, many primary teachers understand the value of taking running records and use them to benchmark their student's progress and inform their instruction.
Taking a running record takes practice but with time, you can quickly learn to take a helpful running record. To take a running record, find a book that you believe is written at the student's independent level that the child has not read before. Some people prefer to make a copy of the text for themselves to mark on while others simply look over the child's shoulder as s/he reads and make their markings in a line by line fashion on a blank piece of paper. Tell the child that you will be listening to him or her read out loud and making notes about his or her reading on your paper to learn about what s/he does well when reading. As the child reads, make a check mark for each word that is read correctly. For example, if the child read, "The father came home from work." your paper would have six check marks on the first line indicating that each word was read correctly. If the child is reading too fast, tell him or her to either slow down or to stop while you catch up with your recording.
Reading Error Rate: To determine the students error rate, count the total words read and divide by the total number of errors the child makes while reading. Round the number to the nearest whole number. The error rate is expressed as a ratio meaning that for each error made, the child reads X words correctly.
Reading Accuracy Level: To find the child's accuracy rate to determine if the text is easy enough for independent reading, count the total words read and subtract the total errors and then divide by the total words read and multiply by 100. Books should be in the 95-100% accuracy range for the reader to do well with this book. A book which a reader can read with 90-94% accuracy is at the child's instructional level. This book can be used in guided reading situations but is too difficult for the child to read alone. If the child's accuracy level with the given text is below 90% it is too difficult for this reader and should not be used.
To learn to take running records with your students, spend some time practicing using the marking chart that you can download below: |
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Running Record Marking Chart Download |
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Learning Sight Words |
Beginning readers need to learn to identify the sounds that letters and phonemes make so they can sound out new words. For the beginning reader, this is done through explicit and direct instruction in phonics. Being able to decode a word is a skill that even adult readers use when they come across a new word while reading so children definitely have to have a good grasp of the sounds that various letters and letter combinations. While a solid understanding of phonics is essential, it is not enough since decoding requires a significant amount of mental energy. Just as learning the multiplication tables is a foundational skill for young children in math, developing a large number of words that children can recognize "by sight" without having to stop and sound them out is essential for fluent reading. For this reason, as children are continuing to expand their phonemic awareness and phonics skills, it is also important that they practice the common sight words that they will encounter in their reading.
Edward Dolch and Edward Fry both identified word lists of the most commonly found words that elementary students would encounter in their readings. While some of the words on these lists can be decoded using normal phonic skills, others are irregular or have unique pronunciations and should simply be memorized. Having students practice these words until they can easily identify them without having to think about them can greatly increase a child's reading fluency. When children read more fluently, they can devote more cognitive energy to comprehension and thus they enjoy reading more. Personally, I prefer to use the Dolch words with primary reders and the Fry words with struggling upper grade readers but either list can be used to help children expand their recognition of sight words.
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Dolch Sight Word Games
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| Print out the Dolch word card sets and begin with the preprimer set with small groups of students. You will note that each set has been created in a different color to make card sorting by level quick and easy. Since children love games, a good way to practice sight words is to play games with them with small groups of children of similar ability levels. I begin with one set of cards and show the card to the first child. If the child can read the word, s/he gets to hold the card. If s/he cannot read the word, show the card to the next student around the group until either a child correctly identifies the word or you tell students the word. If no one correctly reads the word, then tell the students the word and place the word back on the bottom of the deck. Continue playing until all of the word cards have been "won" by the students. If you want to add an element of competition, you can have the students count their cards to determine the game "winner" but children enjoy the game even without competing against one another. |
Dolch Preprimer Word Cards Download |
| Dolch Primer Word Cards Download |
| Dolch First Grade Word Card Download |
| Dolch Second Grade Word Card Download |
Dolch Third Grade Word Card Download |
| Dolch Nouns Word Card Download |
| Patterned Sight Word Card Download |
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| Another way to reinforce sight words is in a board game format. Print and laminate the two board games below. Provide each child with a different colored marker and locate them on the starting square of the board.. Place the word cards in a stack, face down. Each child draws a card and moves 1 space if s/he correctly reads the word on the card drawn. If the child cannot read the word, the card goes back on the bottom of the deck and play moves to the next child. Children play until someone reaches the end of the path and a "winner" has been declared. |
Puppy Sight Word Game Board Download |
| Dinosaur Sight Word Game Board Download |
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