The Common Core Reading Foundational Skills Petra Moran

The Common Core Reading Foundational Skills: Petra Moran and Rochelle Berndt Baldwin Wallace University October 25, 2012 OCTEO Fall Conference

Take a Moment… Reflect on how you currently teach phonics (and/or spelling), and how you have taught phonics in the past. § What do you think are the “best practices” in teaching phonics to novice and striving readers? § How did you learn phonics? § Was it effective? Enjoyable?

Some Important Definitions § Phonological Awareness - the awareness that spoken language can be broken into smaller units such as words, syllables, onsets, rimes, and phonemes. § Phonemic Awareness – the ability to identify and manipulate individual units of sound. § Phonics – an instructional approach that focuses on the systematic relationship between letters and sounds and how sounds map to letters to form words. § Orthography – the spelling system of a language.

What are the Common Core State Standards (College and Career Readiness Standards)? § Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects § Developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) § Ambitious

The Standards Are: 1. Research and evidence-based 2. Aligned with college and work expectations 3. Rigorous 4. Internationally benchmarked

“A vision of what it means to be literate…” “As a natural outgrowth of meeting the charge to define college and career readiness, the Standards also lay out a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century. Indeed, the skills and understandings students are expected to demonstrate have wide applicability outside the classroom or workplace. Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close, attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount of information available today in print and digitally.

“A vision of what it means to be literate…” They actively seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in language. ” (p. 3, Introduction, CCSS)

A Shift in Instruction “It was just a few years ago when No Child Left Behind (NCLB) required educators to focus on the expectations of the National Reading Panel. Back then, the whole world of comprehension was compacted into one small item in a list of five priorities – phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension-with all of comprehension being equal in emphasis to phonemic awareness…. ”

A Shift in Instruction “…One glance at the Common Core State Standards’ expectations reveals that today’s document places a much stronger emphasis on higher-level comprehension skills” (p. 9) –From Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement by Lucy Calkins, Mary Erenworth and Christopher Lehman (2012)

Reading Foundational Skills § Please take a moment to read pages 15 -17 from the CCSS/CCRS and pages 17 -22 in Appendix A. § Turn and Talk: What do you notice about how the CCSS/CCRS addresses the order and depth of phonemic and orthographic knowledge?

A Change in Instruction Though the CCSS/ CCRS does not dictate how to teach, the content contained within (and the Bibliography in Appendix A) seemed to suggest to us that many of the “explicit” methods for teaching phonics under Reading First might be outdated.

A Sample Reading First Phonics Lessons – West Virginia Reading First

Bibliography – Appendix A Reading Foundational Skills • Balmuth, M. (1992). The roots of phonics: A historical introduction. Baltimore, MD: York Press. • Bryson, B. (1990). The mother tongue: English and how it got that way. New York, NY: Avon Books. • Ganske, K. (2000). Word journeys. New York, NY: Guilford. • Hanna, P. R. , Hanna, S. , Hodges, R. E. , & Rudorf, E. H. (1966). Phonemegrapheme correspondences as cues to spelling improvement. Washington, DC: Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. • Henry, M. (2003). Unlocking literacy: Effective decoding and spelling instruction. Baltimore, MD: Brookes. • Moats, L. C. (2000). Speech to print: Language essentials for teachers. Baltimore, MD: Brookes. • Moats, L. C. (2008). Spellography for teachers: How English spelling works. (LETRS Module 3). Longmont, CO: Sopris West. • Venezky, R. (2001). The American way of spelling. New York, NY: Guilford.

So What to Do? The inclusion of Kathy Ganske’s Word Journeys as well as the inclusion of morphemic knowledge in English orthography seemed to suggest that the scope of reading foundational skills went well beyond the various vowel patterns marked the end of phonics instruction (i. e. workbooks) of the past.

Early Expectations • Please look at the following slide, taken from the ODE website. • Notice what students are to have mastered at the end of grade 3, then grade 5. • Turn and Talk: Do you think these expectations are developmentally appropriate?

The Teacher as Expert § Teachers themselves must have a better understanding of the English language. § Teachers must know what precedes and follows the scope and sequence of phonics and spelling instruction at their grade levels in order to differentiate instruction. § Older students still need to engage in the study of words (morphemes, derivational suffixes).

Teacher Knowledge Matters “The most powerful feature of schools, in terms of developing children as readers and writers, is the quality of classroom instruction…No school with mediocre classroom instruction ever became effective just by adding a high-quality remedial or resource room program, by adding an after-school or summer program, or by purchasing a new reading series. ” (p. 142, Richard Allington, What Really Matters for Struggling Readers)

Student Understanding Matters “Professional teaching requires much more than presentation or coverage of material… [Teachers] emphasis …is not simply on covering material but rather on…[helping students] develop a deep understanding of that content. ” (p. 216, Du Four and Eaker, Professional Learning Communities at Work)

Philosophical Shift - Compare A teacher who responds to a student who has failed to learn by asking, "What is wrong with this student? ” A teacher who responds to a student who has failed to learn by asking, “How could the content or instructional strategies be modified so that the student can learn what was intended? ”

So, Is There ONE Right Way to Teach Phonics (and Word Recognition)?

Synthetic Approach § Synthetic – letter by letter, each letter is pronounced & individual sounds are blended together § Texts students read are dictated by words they can decode § Example: Bob Books § http: //www. bobbooks. com/bob_books_set_2. php § Simple, predictable (yet abnormal) texts § Student writing is typically limited to words they can read and spell correctly

Analytic Approach § Analytic – teaches rules (like an e on the end of the word makes a vowel long) that are typically filled with confusing jargon (i. e. , schwa) § Most common approach found in basal readers § Students are usually given the freedom to read and write texts that are not limited to decodable or known words

Analogic Approach § The teaching of phonics patterns § Children use the patterns in known words to figure out unknown words (word families) § “If I know how to spell hat, how can that help me to write about large, black rodents? ”

What Can You Do in the Interim? (In our humble opinion…)

Word Study § In the time of the CCSS (or CCRS) and RTI, a workbook or basal approach will not meet the needs of all students. § One size fits all scripted instruction will not meet the needs of all students. § Word study can address phonics, spelling and eventually vocabulary instruction and it can do it at each child’s level.

A Time for Something New § Please read the short article “Traditional Spelling Lists: Old Habits are Hard to Break” by Katherine Hilden and Jennifer Jones from the June/July 2012 edition of Reading Today § Turn and Talk: What was one new discovery you made in this article? How does the article challenge or confirm your thinking?

Not Officially Endorsed Though the word study or making words approaches are not officially endorsed by CCSS/CCRS, we feel that this method of instruction: 1. Encourages students to think more critically about words 2. Actively engages them in making and analyzing words 3. Is more easily differentiated to move students towards the goal of deep comprehension outlined in the CCSS Please note we aren’t endorsing any program or system, instead we suggest that teachers familiarize themselves with research on the developmental nature of spelling.

Stages of Spelling Development § Emergent Readers and Writers/Pre-Alphabetic § Letter Name § Within Word § Syllable Juncture § Derivational Relations/ Constancy

The Developmental Nature of Spelling § Spelling proceeds along developmental lines (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton and Johnson, 2008) § Stages are not grade specific § The following voice threaded PPT is helpful in explaining the developmental levels (we suggest you begin at 1: 24 to move to the section which describes this with examples) § Spelling Development PPT § http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=dh. WFbt. MY 0 AA

What is Word Study? § Students actively engage with words, searching for common features among them, instead of being told rules (that are often breakable) by adults. § Students “play” with words. § Students record new words they encounter with features they have noticed. § After repeated engagement with words, students may be assessed on their new word knowledge.

Spelling-Based Phonics Instruction is More Easily Differentiated § “First” or “Second” grade are ambiguous terms. § Children within a grade level are most often within a wide variety of instructional levels. § Spelling and phonics instruction embedded within word study is most easily differentiated to accommodate a wide range of learners, from identified special needs to gifted students.

Begin With a Formative Assessment § There are several different assessments you can you use: – Developmental Spelling Analysis by Kathy Ganske – Words Their Way Spelling Inventory

The Developmental Spelling Analysis (DSA) § Administered orally. § Students write words on form just as they would in a “traditional” spelling test. § The first goal is to determine each student’s spelling stage. § The second goal is to determine where to begin instruction at that stage.

Scoring the DSA § Twenty-five words are assessed. § Students receive one point for every word they spell correctly. § Students receive an additional point if they get the underlined feature correct.

Scoring the DSA § CAUTION: A student can earn 1 point if the feature is spelled correctly, but the word itself is not accurately spelled. § For example: § petch for patch § The tch is the feature, so the student would earn 1 point, not 2 points.

Small Group Instruction § One of the key methods for meeting the various instructional levels in your classroom is small group instruction. § Assessments can reveal the various levels of students within a classroom. § Warning: Groups can be difficult to manage initially, but will have the greatest impact on student growth and make that group visible to parents and other stakeholders. § Syllable Juncture doubling lesson

Word Sorts § The foundation of word study is sorting words by features. § Please refer to Words Their Way or. Word Journeys for spectrum of features within the developmental stages § Word Sort (-ick, -uck, -ack)

Additional Activities § Word Ladders by Tim Rasinski § Making Words by Patricia Cunnigham § Video of Making Words Lesson

What Level of Knowledge is Sufficient? Our Final Thoughts: • Whatever method of phonics instruction you decide to use, relying on a workbook or activities (for which the educational outcomes are little understood) is not enough in to move students along a continuum towards deep comprehension. • Teacher knowledge of how language works is the lynchpin for successful phonics instruction.

Contact Information Petra Moran, M. A. Ed. Rochelle Berndt, M. A. Ed. Doctoral Student Kent State University pmoran@gmail. com Doctoral Candidate Kent State University rberndt@kent. edu Adjunct Professor Baldwin Wallace University pmoran@bw. edu Adjunct Professor Baldwin Wallace University rberndt@bw. edu