Fluency and Me: Episode 2ish “Decode? Is that a Matrix movie?”

Last time on Fluency and Me, we looked at the blocks students face when they have poor reading accuracy: poor sight word memory and poor decoding skills. Sight words are always a work in progress since they change as the student ages.

Decoding strategies on the other hand…they change a bit depending on the level of text and the size of a word. However, all rely on a mastery of symbol/sound relationships or knowing what sound each letter/letter combination makes. Instruction begins BEFORE learners even enter a school. They are looking at TV adverts, pretending to identify letters on their cereal boxes, or scribbling on paper trying to imitate handwriting.

This happens in a pretty predictable pattern:

1. consonants/short vowels (also digraphs)

2. long vowels spelled with silent ‘e’

3. predictable vowel teams (with common suffixes)

4. pattern based vowel teams (different sounds depending on context/spelling)

5. multisyllabic words created by simple prefixes and suffixes

-this is where students meet open (long vowel) syllables and the schwa syllable

6. multisyllabic words with root words

Ordinary Dave knows all this, but like most people, he doesn’t know WHY he knows all this. Good readers automatically pick up the patterns in text. Remember whole language? It’s the idea that if you read enough text you will eventually pick up on those patterns without someone pointing it out to you. You can write well because of the amount of text you’ve been exposed to. You make connections quickly and without a whole lot of conscious thought. That’s how the top 10% of students learn. (Yes, those kids that blow the bell curve for us average folks.) 80% need a combination of the two, at different points in development. The rest of them? They need to be told, repeatedly, exactly what letters do, when they do it, and why.

Repeatedly.

I can hear it already. Just how many is this ‘repeatedly’? I’ve taught short vowel, closed syllable words for months now! Can’t I move on to silent e words yet?

How many times do they need it to reach mastery? So they no longer have to stumble through the words. So they take no more than a second when asked: “What sound does ‘g’ make?” (The hard sound for ‘g’ should always be taught first, by the way.) When they can use sounding out and blending skills without prompting and don’t freeze when they come to a word with more than five letters in it.

This won’t happen with one class or even a week of classes. It will happen over the course of months, and sometimes, even years. So take that time. Throw away the scope and sequence for a while and go where the student ACTUALLY needs to go, not what the next page in your manual tried to tell you they SHOULD need. It will make all the difference.

Fluency and Me…Episode 2: “Would you like Fry with that?”

Previously, on Fluency and Me: We were introduced to what a teacher would consider fluency to be. All the big words such as accuracy, prosody, and expression. Ordinary Dave hates hearing such words since it usually leads to a bunch of “teacher speak” (sarcastic quote fingers included.)

Let’s start at the top with accuracy. This is, of course, getting the words correct, and the better your accuracy, the faster you read. It also affects comprehension as well. The student doesn’t get the meaning of the passage if they can’t read the words correctly.

What does low accuracy mean? It points to two very common culprits: low sight word memory and poor decoding strategies.

“Oooooh, you said sight words!”

Sight words are just that: words you know on sight, without having to think about or decode them. There have been multiple studies done about how knowing these words affect a student’s reading ability, sometimes lead by these two gentlemen, Fry and Dolch. (Ordinary Dave doesn’t know who they are either.) But Google either name and you’ll have a list of words that are the most commonly printed words in varying level of text. Dolch analyzed a whole lot of books to find out which were the most common, Fry expanded that work to include upper-level vocabulary and common phrases. Which is why I go more with Fry.

To even further amaze (or confuse) you, there are two kinds of sight words: phonetic (follows common spelling rules) and non-phonetic (does whatever it likes). Your struggling learners are likely stuck on the non-phonetic words since they tend to rely heavily on decoding strategies.

Hold your flashcards! How can I teach sight words to learners if the word isn’t going to follow any patterns?

Welcome to the wonderful world of multi-sensory teaching. Here you will touch words, write them with your hands and body, paint and color them, and generally do ANYTHING but look at a flash card. Think about it. If your student could learn by flashcards and word walls, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

Here are some great ideas for helping your student learn those pesky sight words in different ways;

-air write using large arm movements

-rainbow write using markers/crayons/colored pencils

-word hunt to find the words in text

-sand writing

-writing with dry erase on laminated table top

-translate from print to cursive (Handwriting makes a difference!)

-write it big, write it small

The possibilities are endless! Next time, we’ll address decoding strategies as a stumbling block to fluency.

Multisensory Ideas for Teaching Sight Words (for you visual learners)

Fry Word app – totally free and it reads the words to them!

Fluency and Me…Episode 1

Any other parent out there confused by the word? What is fluency? What does it have to do with my student’s reading? Why is it so important?

And it is important. It is one of the BIG FIVE as outlined by the National Reading Panel. I use it as a baseline to determine whether or not a student may have a learning disability. There is a direct correlation between fluency and comprehension.

And if you’re like my husband, Ordinary Dave, you have no idea why your kid has to read 72 words in a minute by the end of 2nd grade.

Let’s make some connections. Fluency reminds me of fluid, something moving smoothly, like water. A fluent reader sounds smooth when reading out loud. They do not have to pause often, and when they chunk words into phrases, they make sense and help keep an even pace. This is called prosody, making it easier for your brain to process smaller pieces of the text rather than enormous portions at a time. Fluent readers are pretty accurate as well, and have QUICK decoding skills. They do not spend a lot of time sounding out words.

Yes, they are likely still decoding. Do YOU know all the words in the English language?

Well, let’s start with the first misconception that arises with read aloud fluency. Fluency is more than calling words out loud. It is a mix of accuracy, prosody, and expression. Anyone else’s head hurt?

And, yes, it is also understanding what you read. But if you work with students like mine, the fluency part is pretty tall order. “My brain hurts,” remarked one student after only reading 25 words, but finally using the multiple decoding and word attack strategies we’d been practicing. There’s no way he understood anything he read; all his brain power was dedicated to just figuring out the words.

So, my purpose here is to set you up with some strategies to help your students with fluency. First, so you understand what it IS, and then what to do about it. Episode 2 to come…

It Comes Down To Reading — A Teacher’s Reflections

Children who were in my class many years ago are now making decisions on college acceptances. They stay in touch, and I feel the worry and joy right along with them. And guess what happens? They are accepted into the school(s) of their choice. And, I know why. I do. It’s not me. Really. It […]

via It Comes Down To Reading — A Teacher’s Reflections

The Courage in Teaching

Those who can’t, teach.

My question in return is, “Those who can’t what exactly?”

Those who can’t lead a team of others? In teaching, you can lead and follow on the same day. There is no “head of 4th grade” who hands out your projects and makes the timeline for you to follow. You have the consideration of 100+ students in mind when you sit down and collaborate. And you have no choice but to compromise at times. This isn’t about you.

Those who can’t handle stress? Those who don’t understand sacrifice? Those who get summers off and still complain?

Here is where courage comes into play. Teaching is a lot of self-blame and feeling inadequate. You spend day after day being told by people paid a lot more than you that you’re just not doing enough. Why can’t you do enough?? Why can’t you get these kids to love being assessed by tests they are not ready for? Why can’t you see that the state has the best interest of students in mind when they add more requirements but less funding every year?

It takes courage to get yourself out of bed every day. I love teaching, I love my students. I hate my paperwork. I hate the almost daily assessments that rip about 20 minutes out of a 30-minute lesson. I hate meetings that last until 4:30 and then I still have work to do. I hate telling my sons that I can’t do something because I have a school function.

I hate that there is no science to back up all the things we’re asked to do. That we don’t take the time to do what does work well.

I hate the fact that I hate my job most days.

I get up in the mornings and I dread having to go. But I do it. I’ll do it every day I can because…this is not about me. This is not about what I like or don’t like. This is not about if what is asked of me is fair or not.

This is not about me.

And the courage in teaching is knowing that.

 

Cue the Chorus!

No, really, I mean the full on sun beaming down through the clouds, Hallelujah chorus, because after almost three years of pulling my 4th grade comprehension group to “think about their thinking”, it happened.

My student looked at me and said, “Oh, you mean like when we have to think while we read?”

That’s a breakthrough for her. You could see the steam coming out of her ears as she worked through trying to picture what she was reading, while being aware of words she didn’t know the meaning of, and still trying to be somewhat fluent while doing it.

The puzzle finally made sense.

About 5 years ago, I was introduced to a strategy called Collaborative Strategic Reading (Sopris Voyager). I could immediately see the application ACROSS the curriculum, every subject. Stop and record your thinking as you read.

Regretfully, I do not own stock in 3M, because I would have made a fortune on the number post-it notes we started using. The students had trouble with linear note taking, but putting one thought on a post-it at a time helped them to organize their thinking. They made comments about the words they learned, and the connections they made. (They also wrote notes to each other, but that’s just management.) This happened during silent reading. It continued in science and social studies. It even carried over a bit into math.

These notes allowed them to write detailed letters about their understanding. It also showed me where they were weak and what they needed practice in.

My post-it days are now interactive foldables. It’s still containing the information in ways that are easier to access, but now we use graphic organizers daily. This is especially important for struggling students. They can’t identify the main idea, much less write linear notes that head with that main idea and supporting details. They are still trying to retell a story in a sequential order.

I like it because it is a strategy, not a program. It’s skills that the student can apply to any text, not a controlled text created by some company. It’s better than a literature circle, since EVERY student follows the strategy, they choose the vocabulary THEY need, but they can still report back to each other when finished. The expectation is THINKING while they read, and pausing often for understanding.

I love it when a plan comes together. Er, strategy that is…

I’ve created interactive graphic organizers for Collaborative Strategic Reading. Feel free to check them out (shameless plug) and check out the book as well. It’s fairly thin and easy to follow. Promise.


Before Reading (free)

Metacognitive Strategies for INB (paid)

The D Word

It must come around again, like phonics, then whole language, then the “next big thing”. In 12 years of teaching, I’d heard this word only during my Master’s degree, which was expressly designed for the purpose of diagnosing and treating reading disorders.

Dyslexia.

It’s become the umbrella term for just about any time a student has trouble reading. Slow fluency? Dyslexia. Letter reversal? Dyslexia. Terrible spelling? Dyslexia. Low comprehension? Dyslexia.

And I have some well-meaning teachers who hand out that word to parents like candy without anything to back up the claim other than a student can’t write b and d correctly.

Which then brings up the current dilemma I have with my very ‘informed’ parents. The ones that come to meetings with reams of paper on dyslexia research, mostly designed to get them to buy into online tutoring that costs an exorbitant amount for little to no face to face time. They seem to think that if they can put a name to it, we can fix it and make it go away.

My new conversations start with my hands about two feet apart. “Imagine that there is a spectrum of dyslexia, from mild to severe. We can’t diagnose your child in school simply because there is such a wide range of difference in the disorder. That is why you would spend hundreds of dollars on a neuropsychologist, and you would still get the same result that you would otherwise. I can collect data to evaluate if your child has a learning disability, I just can’t give it a name like dyslexia.”

Why not? There is not any one indicator of a learning disability. Slow fluency may just need decoding or prosody instruction. Letter reversal is usually corrected with cursive. Terrible spelling generally comes from the new attitude of “don’t worry, I’ll have spell check”.  (Well, I have autocorrect, and we all know how THAT turns out.)

I’ve seen a light bulb a couple times. I’ve also seen parents just desperate to put a name to why their child has such a hard time learning to read. Call it dyslexia if you want. The literal meaning could be ‘impaired word’. The dictionary defines it as a medical condition in the brain that makes it hard for someone to read, write, or spell. That IS what is happening with your student.

Let go of the label. It isn’t going to get you anything in the long run, except a really big doctor’s bill. Instead, spend your efforts on the strategies that will help your child best, like dictionary skills for bad spellers, or self-monitoring for low comprehension. The internet is full of extremely helpful teachers who want to help students, and instead of being suckered into labeling what is wrong, figure out what will work.

Stepford Children are a Myth

Reasonable adjustments are not cheating. Reasonable adjustments are not so a child can avoid work. Reasonable adjustments are not unfair to other students. Reasonable adjustments are not rocket science. Reasonable adjustments are essential for students who can not complete class work at a level expected in the classroom. Schools are most certainly legally obliged to implement […]

via The Reasonableness of Reasonable Adjustments! — Dekker Delves into Dyslexia

Welcome to Expectations!

I once heard that the source of all conflict in life was expectations. Which I find remarkably true. We have expectations of ourselves and others that we don’t even realize as the cause of a lot of problems and stress in our lives, mostly because we expect people to somehow realize these expectations without being told what they are.

I’ve found that expectation is what will make or break your classroom/house.

So, is this scenario a teacher or parent speaking?

“But I asked him to do [insert activity here].” And then nothing.

This school year has been particularly rife with these conversations. The new administration has brought some weaknesses into sharp relief and this year’s theme: behavior. My answer: expectation.

Sure, you asked that student to do something more than once, but you didn’t really expect him to comply and he knows you aren’t going to follow through when he doesn’t do what you ask. Kids know these things. They’re like sharks following chum.

Now, expectation isn’t generally something someone can teach you. If you don’t expect compliance, then you won’t get it. But you CAN alleviate some of your issues by letting a student know what to expect for non-compliance, so they aren’t wondering if THIS time is the time you lose your marbles and make the whole bunch walk laps because one got your goat in less than five minutes.

Have a set procedure of consequences. Our school starts with a color chart that has 7 colors. Of course there are multiple warnings at each level, and the office is WAY at the bottom. (As it should be.)

1) allow the escape behavior in prescribed increments (set a work time and a break time when student can engage in the escape behavior as long as it isn’t disruptive) *warn the other students that they should ignore the student doing to escape behavior or face consequence themselves; this is important since some behavior stems from getting attention from peers*

2) timeout in the classroom (makes this the most boring corner/desk you have, away from EVERYONE – no interaction unless it is an interest in coming back to the group)

3) timeout in another classroom (still exposed to some sort of teaching, but less likely to continue the behavior with an unknown teacher)

4) timeout with other personnel (this should be the guidance counselor, intervention, etc., not administration)

5) office

Follow this set of expectations each time. Everything should have a short set time as well, such as 5-10 minutes. Your behavior student shouldn’t lose an entire day in time out or the office unless the behavior is severe. Once you AND the student know what’s coming, you have control of this aspect of the expectation and no one is guessing what happens next.