The Importance of Read Alouds!

I am committed to reading aloud to my students daily.  

 

Not only is it my very favorite time of day, but there are so many benefits of reading aloud to kids.

Here are some advantages of reading aloud to children:

1. It's a shared literacy experience within the classroom community.

2. It's a great way to model important reading concepts like understanding characters, using inference skills, predicting, and more!

3. It's a great way to model phrasing and fluent reading.

4. Read Alouds are like an advertisement for books! Ever notice how the kids want to read a book right after you read it to them? Or perhaps another book in the series?

5. Read Alouds develop a child's vocabulary.

6. Shared books are a great way to model writing skills!

7. Shared books are a great way to spark discussion about sensitive subjects.

8. Children learn language patterns and figurative language through Read Alouds.

9. When you have multiple reading levels in your classroom (which most of us do!) it "evens the playing field."

10. Reading aloud helps build attention spans.

11. It's a chance to "think aloud" to model decoding new words using context clues.

12. It's a great opportunity to bring literature into other subjects like Science, Social Studies, Mathematics, and even Music, Art, and Phys. Ed!

13. Reading aloud encourages thinking and using imagination.

14. Reading aloud helps children learn about the world. Not just their own world, but other places, cultures, time periods, and even fictional worlds.

15. It's fun!

Looking to get families involved? Enjoy this resource!

 Tips for Helping Children at Home With Literacy Skills

What books do you like to read aloud to children?
What other advantages to reading aloud can you name?

 

 

Ten Freebies, Dollar Deals, and Two Dollar Treats for Back to School!

Yes, you read that right, that's a full ten back-to-school bargains!

These bargains are designed to make your teacher life easier for back to school!

These are some of the things that always help me through those first busy weeks of school! 

 

Here's a Dollar Deal to help organize your literacy centers, including what the children do when they're not with you!

Literacy Center Cards! 

These cards are part of this more inclusive resource: 

Guided Reading and Literacy Center Management and Organization Resources

 

 

We all know those children who struggle to learn sight words. This research-based $2 Treat will help!

Spelling Fun - Brain Friendly Task Cards

For a more inclusive resource see:

Research-Based Sight Word Task Cards for ANY Word

 Here's a great way to keep communication open with parents, and give them some information that will help their children be successful!

Parent Communication Brochure for Back to School or September

This system has helped many children master their basic math facts. This freebie is the first of 8 research-based, brain-friendly levels toward math fact fluency.

Brain Friendly Addition and Subtraction Fact Freebie

Have your students mastered addition and subtraction facts? Move them on to multiplication and division! As with the addition and subtraction facts above, these are research-based and brain-friendly. This freebie is the first of 8 levels toward multiplication and division fact fluency!

 

Brain Friendly Multiplication and Division Freebie

This Dollar Deal is a great way to start the year in Science and Social Studies.

 

Science and Social Studies Printables for August & September Sampler

For the full set of 9 enhanced activities see:

Science and Social Studies Activities for August and September

  

Looking for some fun ways to get the children comfortable with each other and learn to work together? These 6 Dollar Deal Team Building Games are very popular!

6 Team Building Games and Activities 

These 6 games are included in:

20 Team Building Games and Activities Build Classroom Community

These 20 games are included in the bigger set... this one will last you the whole year!

60 Team Building Games and Activities to Build Classroom Community

  

I use these Dollar Deal tools as a "school office" with my students. These hands-on tools help children become independent learners!

 

Hands-On Tools for Learning: Sampler

These tools are included in the big bundle:

Hands-On Tools for Learning Bundle

These tools are also available for each individual subject:

Reading Tools for Learning

Writing Tools for Learning

Math Tools for Learning

Science Tools for Learning

Social Studies Tools for Learning

  

This Dollar Deal is a fun way to get the kiddos thinking about their learning and how they can take charge of their learning.

I Can Stretch My Brain!

 

This one will help the kiddos get all those summertime wiggles out!

Back to School Brain Breaks

If you find these freebies and dollar deals useful, I'd love if you left some feedback!

I hope these bargains and ideas make your teaching life a bit easier!

 

 

December Freebies

It has come to my attention just how many freebies I have for the month of December. 

Here are some of my favorites:

Hanukkah is super early this year, in fact, it's happening now! Be sure to download this Hanukkah Game Board. It can be used with skill that needs practicing: math facts, sight words, task cards. Just do a card, check, and roll your way around the game board.  

Holiday Fluency Sample is a fun way to practice reading phrases.  With holiday words, of course!

This is my very favorite holiday activity. It focuses on the classic holiday music and the storyline that goes along with it. Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker includes suggestions on which music to play with each part of the storyline. It's a great exercise in visualization, and the kids absolutely love it! Yes, even the boys! How can you miss when the setting is a place called The Kingdom of Sweets!(I've done this every year for at least 15 years!)

 

 

This is what my students are working on tomorrow: Acts of Kindness Countdown gives the kids a chance to count down the days until Christmas and enjoy the joy of giving at the same time.  Plus, everything they are giving is free!

The two resources below are NOT free, but are totally worth it!

I had to throw in my newest resources, although this one is not free. December Holidays True or False Boom Digital Task Cards This digital resource gives the students a chance to practice reading skills while learning about holidays around the world. Boom Learning digital task cards are easy to use, perfect for remote or distance learning, and fun for the students!

And here's one more new one, that's very popular with the children! Boom Learning December General Knowledge Trivia Questions and Enrichment

 

The December holidays are great fun for the students, and a great excuse for fun learning!

Seven Ideas for Reading Accurately

I've finished my DIBELS, and my kids are all over the ballpark as far as their needs go. 

I have noticed that several students had high "Words Correct Per Minute", but their accuracy was low. These kids read loads of words but were adding, changing, and omitting lots of words. These same kids also had trouble with punctuation, and retelling the story. They need work on accuracy!

Here are some ideas for working on accuracy.

1.  Tell them that's what they need to work on. Yes, seriously, give them the feedback they need. That's the number one trick to improvement, knowing what you need to work at! If necessary, revisit the "finger-pointing" stage to help them focus on the words that are really there. (But don't stay at the "finger-pointing" stage, of course!)

2.  Partner reading - One partner reads, and the other partner checks to make sure they're reading accurately. This works best if the children are evenly matched at their own reading level.

3. Read with an adult - Grab a spare adult somewhere to read with students! It might be a teacher assistant, a parent volunteer, or maybe even the librarian, Phys. Ed. teacher or music teacher! Anyone that has a few minutes can sit down with a child and listen to them read. (Make sure they are ready to give feedback!)

4. Have them read "out soft" - often!  The more they read so someone can hear, the more accurate they will become. That "sense of an audience" really makes a difference. When my students come to reading group, I have them bring a book they are working on, and they are expected to sit down and start reading it "out soft". That means: loud enough so that I can hear them across the reading table, but not loud enough to be heard from across the room. They find it a little awkward at first, but it doesn't take long for them to feel comfortable reading their book just loud enough to be heard. This trick also gives me a chance to listen to individuals, give a little extra time to some kids, and has the children warmed up and ready for reading group. I notice huge improvements in accuracy and fluency when I start doing this!

5. Readers Theater - As mentioned above, that "sense of an audience" is a big motivator! Plus, Readers Theater can be fun, which is another plus! There are plenty of sources of scripts out there. Just google it! Just beware of the danger of readers theater: after reading it a few times, they memorize the script. Then it isn't real reading anymore! Find some ideas here: Using Reader's Theater to Help Students Learn Kindness.

6.  Reading song lyrics - Music is very closely related to the memory. If they already know the song, they'll be able to read the lyrics. Give out song sheets and have them "finger read". As above, just make sure they are truly reading, not reciting something that they have memorized. (There's nothing wrong with memorization, but that's not the skill we're trying to improve!)

7.  Practice sight words and phrases - In order to read accurately, they've got to know the words! Experts recommend that children learn sight words in context. See the freebie below for several phrases using the Dolch pre-primer list. There are plenty more of these for other levels, too!

What are your ideas for building accuracy?

How NOT to Read Fluently

Today, my students spent some of our reading time practicing fluency. Especially at this time of year, I go out of my way to make it fun. (Brain research shows us that "fun" is a big motivator, but I think teachers knew that before the research was done!)

There are 4 important parts to fluency:

1. automaticity in word recognition 
2. accurate word recognition
3. rate (speed) of reading
4. prosody, or expression

We started today with a demonstration of what NOT to do when reading. I demonstrated reading too fast, not stopping for punctuation, mispronouncing words without going back to fix it, and using a monotone- no expression at all. 

There were lots of giggles.

Then I modeled the proper way to read. I read smoothly and accurately. I kept an appropriate pace, and I gave it meaning as I read it. This time, instead of giggles, I got applause! (I admit, I have my class well trained!)

I thought this activity would be perfect to put into my emergency sub plans. It's got limited materials (just books for kids, which I'm sure you have!) and is a skill that needs to be practiced frequently. This is the type of activity that can be repeated several times during the year. I've typed up the directions for you to download and put into your own emergency plans. Just see here or the image below. How NOT to Read Fluently

For more ideas for substitute activities, see THIS POST

For more information about fluency, see THIS POST.

 Enjoy!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Syllables... and Then Some

Did you know there were 6 kinds of syllables?

Knowing the different kinds of syllables will help the children move as readers from reading basic single-syllable words to multi-syllabic words like watermelon and helicopter.

However, children shouldn't be trying to decode multi-syllabic words until they have mastered single-syllable words with blends, digraphs, short vowels, long vowel patterns, r-controlled vowels,  diphthongs and other vowel pairs, prefixes, and suffixes.

In my second grade class, I'm still working on fluency with short vowels with several of my students, but my top readers are very much able to decode multi-syllabic words, as well as spell them!

Here are the six kinds of syllables:

• Closed Syllable - These are short vowels followed by a consonant, such as  num in number, or vel in velvet. 

• Vowel Consonant e Syllable - This is your classic long vowel/ silent e pattern such as ade in parade or cide in decide.

 

• Open Syllable - These are long vowel syllables that end with the vowel such as ta in table and spi in spider.

 

• Consonant l e Syllable - These are at the ends of words like ble in table and tle in little.

 

• R- Controlled Syllable - These have an r controlled vowel such as gar in garden and der in under. 

 

• Vowel Digraph/ Diphthong "D" Syllable - These contain a diphthong or a vowel diagraph. (Sometimes called "vowel teams") Examples are thou as in thousand and poi as in poison.

Why is it important to teach syllables?  When readers break unfamiliar words into syllables, the words become easier to decode. Learning about syllables also help students remember spelling patterns. Knowing how to decode syllables will help children become more fluent readers, and studies show that fluency helps comprehension. And that's our goal, isn't it?  

Many teachers teach syllables by having the children clap the beat of the syllables. This works for most children. 

A more tactile way is to teach the children to place their hand under their jaw as they say the words. As the mouth will open for every vowel sound (and each syllable represents a vowel sound) the jaw will tap the hand for each syllable.  

Want to read more about syllables?

• Six Syllable Types on Reading Rockets was co-written by my instructor of the LETRS training, so it's got to be quality information!  (And interesting, too!)

• Vocabulary.co.il has a couple of syllable games and videos for the kids.

I've put together a resource with a couple of lists that can be used for practicing with syllables. There are a few options for using my syllables lists. They could be used simply as lists for children to practice reading. They could also be cut out and shuffled, for the kids to sort. They could sort by syllable type, or simply how many syllables are in the words. Find your resource here: Reading 2 and 3 Syllable Words.

Enjoy this resource and your 6 kinds of syllables!

 

Want some more work on syllables? 

Check out Buggy Syllables 

and 

Nonsense Word Sort and Board Game.

Plus, here's a blog post that explains more about why children should practice nonsense words:

 

Why do we practice Nonsense Words?