Suggested
activities for helping children to develop skill in phonemic awareness:
SUMMARY
OF CHAPTER 10-pages 296-298.
CONTEXT
CLUES AS A WORD IDENTIFICATION STRATEGY
The
Cons of Context Clues in Word Identification
The
Pros of Context Clues in Word Identification
Word
Identifiers in the Full-Alphabetic Phase 4 of Word Learning:
Recognition
of Words When Their Spellings Have Changed Because an Ending Has Been Added
Procedure
for instruction of prefixes:
Suffixes
defined- a word part affixed to the end of a root word or base
General
Features of an Intensive Program of Word Development
Specific
Activities Requiring In-Depth Processing
Involve
students in process-oriented semantic mapping.
Process
Oriented semantic mapping
Use
of Word Maps for Different Parts of Speech
Experiences
with synonyms and antonyms
Experiences
with Multiple Meanings of Words.
Increase
vocabulary learning through writing
Independent
Word Learning from Text 320 – 327
Knowledge
of word meaning can improve reading.
Reading can improve knowledge of word meaning.
Some
Books to Read Aloud to Middle School Students
Help
students learn to use context to determine meanings of words when it is
helpful.
LEARNING
WORDS FROM ORAL LANGUAGE ENCOUNTERS
Somebody
Wanted But So Organizer
Volume 1, Chapter 10 April 5, 2004
Phonemic Awareness
A phoneme is the smallest
part of spoken language. Phonemic
awareness is the ability to detect and manipulate the individual phonemes
(sounds) in spoken words. With phonemic
awareness, a person is able to understand that words are made up of a sequence
of sounds. Research has shown that a
preschool child’s level of phonemic awareness predicts his/her future success
in learning to
read.
Types of manipulations
expected at the beginning stage of phonemic
awareness include:
1. Phoneme Isolation
“What is the first sound
you hear in pat?”
2. Phoneme Blending
“When I say, p-a-t, what
word is that?”
3. Phoneme Segmentation
“Tap out the number of
sounds you hear when I say, pat,” (3)
or, “What sounds do you hear when I say, pat?” (p-a-t).
4. Phoneme Deletion
“Say pat, without the p
(given as a sound, not as a letter).”
5. Phoneme Differentiation
“Listen to these words, and
tell me which begins with a different
sound:
pat, fat, pig, pen.”
When providing explicit
instruction for helping children to develop phonemic awareness, research
indicates that skills should be introduced in sequence from the easiest task to
the most difficult. Lundberg et al
(1988), suggests this sequence: a)
rhyming activities (mimed and child-created); b) hearing syllables in words; c)
hearing initial sounds of words; and d) hearing sounds within
words.
Suggested activities for helping children to develop skill in phonemic awareness:
1. word games requiring
children to blend syllables to form words (or individual phonemes to form
words);
2. naming pictures and sorting
according to names beginning with the same sound (to increase awareness of
likenesses and differences among sounds;
read aloud from books which use alliteration and
rhyming word-play, and as a follow-up activity, encourage children to dictate
their own rhyming poems (Dr. Seuss
Helpful Websites
Books that Build Phonemic Awareness
Reading Quest - Think Pair Share
BIG IDEAS in Beginning Reading
Assessment and Instruction in
Phonological Awareness
Beginning Reading and Phonological
Awareness for Students with Learning Disabilities
BIG IDEAS in Begining Reading- Alphabetic Principle
BIG IDEAS in Begining Reading - Phonemic Awareness
Children's
Books for Teaching Phonemic Awareness: An Annotated Bibliography
Doing What
Works: Effective Technology in the Classroom
Effective Decoding Instruction for
Diverse
Learners: Alphabetic Principle
How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness
Activities for Collaborative Classrooms
Music to Build Reading and Language Skills
Overview of Learning to Read and
Write:
Developmentally Appropriate Practices
for Young Children
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children
SCORE Language Arts Activities
Straight Talk about Reading: Key Components of Early
Reading Instruction
Wallach and Wallach's
Tongue Twisters
Word Activities from Speech Teach
Reading Links - Secondary Level
Between the
Lions: Kindergarten Teachers' Guide
Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test: Staff Development
Tool
The Reflective Teacher: Parents Are Teachers Too
Connecting
State Standards to the Cognitive
NEARStar (Network for English Acquisition and
Phonological Awareness, Phonemic
Awareness and
Phonics: What are they? How do they
differ?
ERIC Digest: Phonemic Awareness: An Important
Early Step in Learning to Read
Partnership for Reading: Bringing Scientific Evidence to
Learning
Phonemic Awareness and the Teaching of Reading
What Every Teacher Should Know about
Why Reading Is Not a Natural Process
Working and Playing with Words
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER
10-pages 296-298.
CONTEXT CLUES AS A WORD IDENTIFICATION STRATEGY
1.
The use of context clues was considered the prime strategy for identifying
unknown words. Teachers were often advised to direct students' attention
to the context surrounding a word before prompting other word identification
strategies or sometimes in lieu of any other strategy. Students were routinely
asked to skip words, read to the end of the sentence, and then attempt to guess
a word that would fit the sentence. For a long time it was assumed that
proficient readers did just that, predicting what unknown words would be by
using expectancies based on their knowledge of language and the world.
2.
For the skilled and unskilled readers-context clues were presumed to be
the most valuable aid to word identification. This theory seemed to hold
some logic and was certainly well meaning. However, much to
the surprise of many reading authorities, when researcher investigated widely
held assumptions about the value of context clues, this did not prove to be the
case.
3.
Proficient readers do not use context clues as their primary word
identification strategy; identifications are based on visual and phonemic
information in the words themselves.
4.
Context clues may assist with the meaning of the word that has multiple
definitions, therefore could be ambiguous. This occurs
after the word has been identified.
5.
Context may also help a competent reader use word
pattern information more quickly. This does not replace the need to
use letter and sound knowledge.
6.
According research and developing readers the benefit of using context clues
are as follows:
a. The
strategy is used most by the students who are least skillful. Those
readers who make the least head way tend to remain in a stage where use of
context is the central way to read words (Biemiller,
1970). (Briemiller, 1970) summarized these
findings by saying that "the longer a student stay in the early,
context-emphasizing phase without showing as increase in the use of graphic
information the poorer the reader he is at the end of the year.
7.
The use of context clues is now considered to be a compensatory strategy (Stanovich, 1980) since it is used as a compensation because
the reader does not yet have control of more productive methods of word
recognition and identification (Daneman, 1981; e.g.),
1991; Stanovich, 1993-94).
8.
Context clues does not provide the support once
believed. The easiest word to predict from context clues are
function words (Gough, 1983). These are the words that occur most often
in print and students are most likely to recognized
at sight, making the use of context unnecessary. Individual content words occur
less frequently, making it more probable that there will be a greater challenge
in identifying them.
9.
Content word are the words most difficult to determined from context;
for those words where a word identification strategy is needed, context
may be helpful. According to a number of studies, natural text is not
especially predictable. The chance that a student can guess the
next word in a passage turn out to be about 20 to 35% and for content words the
percentage is less. (Gough, 1983) found that content words, those
that carry a lot of meaning of the passage, could be predicted only about 10%
of the time.
10.
Juel (1991) noted that no matter how imperfect letter
sound relationship are, they still are more reliable
than context clues in word identification.
11.
One major criticism of encouraging students is to use context to the exclusion
of other cueing systems is that they will not study a word's letter and sound
and therefore will not have any information to recognize the word the next time
they encounter it. This would not be a problem if context habitually conveyed the
unknown word.
12.
Another reason for teachers to refrain from prompting poor readers to use
context clues as their chief word identification strategy is that for context
to operate productively, the reader must know the words surrounding the
unfamiliar word, and this often is not the situation with unskilled readers (Ehri, 1991).
13.
The use of context clues does have some value. Until readers are adept at using
visual and sound information to determine the identities of many words, there
are times when context will provide a clue to an unfamiliar word (though this
may be less often than once was believed).
14.
Context can also limit the possibilities of what a word might be when a student
is trying to identify it; for example, when students are reading independently
and their identification strategies lead them to believe a word is one of two
similar words but they are not sure which, then context may solve this dilemma.
15.
Context provides a check on words that have been produced through use of other
word identification strategies, which is indeed a valuable function. The use of
context to assist comprehension has been upheld by research (e.g., Baker &
Brown, 1984) However, context clues are no longer regarded to be as helpful as
once was supposed for learning or recognizing words.
In
conclusion, For a large number of students in remedial
programs, the major concerns/problems are lack of automatic word recognition
and deficiencies in word identification strategies. A focus on any single
approach (phonics) for the remediation of these difficulties to the exclusion
of others, is detrimental to student progress. The
nature of English words and English text structure requires use of a variety of
clues as unknown words are encountered. Consideration of a student's
phase of word learning must also be taken into account.
Proficient readers, like poor readers, also may encounter unknown
words in their reading. Capable readers, however, have multiple
strategies at their disposal. This fact should be an indicator to
teachers that it is necessary to teach a variety of word learning strategies to
their students.
Context Clues Weighed and Found Lacking in Word Identification
A surprising development in the world of education
reveals that using context clues as the primary method of identifying unknown
words is one of the least effective means to do so. Research bears out that
proficient readers rely on more efficient ways of word identification
like visual and phonemic clues, rather than context clues. They look for information within words
themselves to help with decoding those words.
Conversely, poor readers tend to rely primarily on one or two strategies
to decode words. The least skillful
readers tend to put all of their “eggs” in the basket of context clues as
primary sources of word identification.
Studies tell us that unless these readers learn to use graphic
information within words, and rely solely on context clues, they make the least
amount of progress academically, and may actually regress in a year’s
time.
The
Cons of Context Clues in Word Identification
1. There
are many times when context does not convey the real meaning of words, and can
even be confusing or misleading.
Example: I ___________ a witch of Halloween.
(was,
saw)
2. Natural
text is not very predictable. When
reading at grade level, context provides clues for only about 20-35% of
words. It is an even lower percentage in
content areas where there is only about a 10% chance that context will help
with identifying unknown words. Content
words are the hardest to determine from context. These factors lead to a high probability of
miscue rates.
3. The
easiest words to predict are usually function words (prepositions, conjunctions,
and articles). Since most of these words
are frequently used in print, they usually become sight words, and then context
is not needed for identification.
4. When
context clues are used consistently in lieu of other cueing systems, other
cueing systems like letter-sound relationships, phonics, and structural
analysis suffer. Students fail to use
other kinds of information to help them recognize words so that the next time
they come upon them in print, they are still unable to decode them.
5. Many
times, readers must be familiar with surrounding words in order to use context
clues. Since that is a problem for many
struggling readers, it is a fairly ineffective strategy.
The
Pros of Context Clues in Word Identification
1. Context clues can sometimes
provide hints to readers who have underdeveloped word attack skills and sight
word vocabularies.
2. When
independent readers are able to use other word identification strategies to
identify words and are able to narrow down word possibilities to a choice
between two similar words, context may help in determining the correct word.
3. Context
clues can provide a check system for words that have been determined through
the use of other word identification strategies.
4. Context
clues may help to confirm the meaning of a word with multiple meanings.
So, is using context clues a bad thing? The answer is that it can be when it is used
as the exclusive or primary way of identifying and decoding words. It tends to be the most effective for those
established readers, who usually need the least amount of help in a traditional
reading class. Readers must be taught a
variety of strategies for word identification so that when one system fails,
they have other back-up systems in place to help them reconstruct meaning when
it begins to fall apart.
Word
Identifiers in the Full-Alphabetic Phase 4 of Word Learning:
Structural
Analysis
Structural analysis is a strategy
used to identify a word by paying
attention to the meaningful parts that make up the unknown word.
Instructional Procedures
Inflectional endings are affixes
(word parts) that are added to the end
of
words to change the meaning of the words.
These inflectional endings
may make words plural, third-person singular verb present tense - past
tense, present participle, possessives, and comparisons in adjectives and
adverbs.
The
word slide is a manipulative for practicing inflectional ends.
Recognition of Words When Their Spellings Have Changed
Because an Ending Has Been Added
Many poor readers may be able to
recognize a root word, but when you add inflectional endings to root words they
may not be able to recognize the
word. This occurs especially when the
spelling of the root word is changed (dry and
You may use a board game using words
that are spelled correctly and
incorrectly to test whether the student actually recognizes the word.
Contractions
Many poor readers find them
confusing because letters are left out of the
word. Direct practice in recognizing
contractions and their relationships to the words from which they derive often
is needed remedial programs.
Compound Words
There
are three types of compound words:
- longer words formed by
putting together two small words,
- hyphenated words
- words like ice cream that
are not physically connected, but having a special meaning when used
jointly.
Compound
Dominoes is an activity enjoyed by the students while practicing recognition of
compound words. Make a list of compound
words. Make a list of compound words on
strips. Match the compound words to make
a new compound word. (lighthouse flyball gamebird bathhouse
coatroom)
Prefixes:
Definition:
a prefix is a meaningful word part affixed to the beginning of
a
root word.
Procedure
for instruction of prefixes:
- Be sure students recognize prefixes they
are to use. ( Suggestion:provide a chart that
includes all the prefixes you will teach , such as the fifteen common
prefixes Stauffer listed)
- In direct teaching and
in practice choose root words the students already know to affix the
prefixes.
- Give attention to
changes in meanings with the added prefixes.
- Group the prefixes you
wish to teach by connotation, i.e. un, non, and dis are all negative prefixes. The next
group could be positive and so on.
- Note the differences
in absorbed and active prefixes. For example, the words adjacent and
combine were once prefixed, but today we do not use them in this way. This information
would probably be used with older students as a point of interest.
- Active prefixes are
those word parts we use to add to root words, such as re+pay=
repay and sub+zero = subzero.
Certainly,
more time will be directed to
teaching the active prefixes.
PREFIX
ACTIVITY
Card
Game matching 15 common prefixes to root words known to the student.
The
game can be played alone
(at the desk or at a learning center) or
with a partner. A check sheet will tell the student if he/she is correct.
The
student will also put a list of errors/ successes in a box for the
teacher to check at the end.
Game
pieces- a deck of prefix cards and a deck of familar
words to match,
an
answer key and an info note to the
teacher about success / errors.
Suffixes
Suffixes
defined- a word part affixed to the end of a root word or
base
word.
The
instructional suggestions for suffixes is generally the same as the
instructions for prefixes:
- Provide a list of
suffixes on a chart, include their meanings
- Go over them with the
students making sure they learn the meanings.
- Identify root/base
words- again use familiar vocabulary. Model and practice the use of the
suffixes.
- Give attention to the
meanings of the suffixes.
- Suffixes can alter
meanings of words by changing grammatical functions-for example "ness "added to dark (darkness) and happy (happiness) take
adjectives and make them nouns.
Volume 1, Issue 11
Vocabulary
p.
300 - 309
Rich Development p. 309-319
General Features of an
Intensive Program of Word Development
|
|
|
|
Specific Activities Requiring In-Depth Processing
Involve students in process-oriented semantic mapping.
aka structured overview, cognitive mapping, word maps
Process Oriented semantic mapping
as a pre-reading activity,
lead a discussion about a vocabulary which is key to understanding something
that will be happening in the story.
Create a semantic map with ideas elicited from the discussion about the vocabulary
word.
Product oriented semantic map
The
teacher identifies words related to a concept and writes them on cards. After reading, students organize the word
cards into a semantic map to help them see relationships.
Using
these semantic map and mapping techniques is helpful
with science or social studies reading that has a heavy load of concepts.
Use of Word Maps for Different Parts of Speech
For a noun, elicit:
- What is it?
- What is it like?
- What are some examples?
For an adjective:
- What does it describe?
- What does it mean?
- What are some examples
For a verb
- What does it describe?
- What is it like?
- What are some examples?
Semantic Feature Analysis
Readers
are helped to link words through a relationship matrix.
Semantically
similar words are written down the y-axis.
Semantic
features are written across the top.
Semantic Features
Properties or meanings that may be shared by the semantically similar
words.
A
discussion ensues designed to determine if the properties fit the words, and
the value is in the discussion itself.
Venn Diagrams
These allow students to
compare and contrast two concepts
Experiences with synonyms and antonyms
Matching, substitution, and
choosing between similar synonyms provide lots of practice.
Introduce a thesaurus: List all words students can think of about a
topic. Have them write a story about the
topic without using any of the words.
Writing Haiku will also necessitate using a thesaurus.(5
syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) Use
the Thesaurus to find a synonym for a word that they want to use that will give
the required number of syllables.
Antonym activity: Create sets of antonyms on cards, make them matcheable by putting stickers on the back, connecting the
two words, and then cut them apart. Students line them up with antonyms
partners, then turn them over to check.
Experiences with Multiple Meanings of Words.
P.
319 shares a teacher made multiple meaning bingo game.
Increase vocabulary learning through writing
Begin
with a prompt for a sentence based on the story just read. Students complete
the sencence.
Independent Word Learning from Text 320 – 327
Incidental Learning
Some
believe that the more widely one reads, the more your vocabulary grows.
Research shows this to be true particularly with 6 – 10 exposures to a word.. Others don’t
agree. Poor readers need to be taught
how to deal with new vocabulary in independent reading.
Knowledge of word meaning can improve reading. Reading
Ways
to encourage interest in reading:
- use interest inventories
to help you choose short books and magazine articles .
- Have Sustained silent
reading with time for sharing.
- Keep index cards and
student write short review and rate. Students can check reviews when
getting a new book. (Use technology and keep a data base)
- Read aloud to students.
Having students retell the story immediately after reading it aloud
results in vocabulary gains.
- Use movies of
children’s and adolescent’s books to excite interest.
- Commercial audio tapes
- Student book club
- Use books that lend
themselves to lessons on word meaning.
- Have lots of books for
students to check out.
- have students dramatize
stories
- Use readers theater
- Use expository texts
- Suggest books with
like-sex protagonists for reluctant readers.
- Poetry: use limericks and other humorous poetry.
Books to Read Aloud to
Reluctant Students
Source: Instructing Students Who Have Literary
Problems
pg 323-324
|
The
Ghost Rock Mystery Grades
4, 5, 6 |
Really
scary. Leaves you “hanging: at the end
of each chapter as something awful is about to happen. A good one to start the year with. Also available in paperback. |
|
The
Snake Who Went to School
Grades 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Funny. A snake gets loose in the school. Isn’t captured for several days, and is the
cause of a number of wild happenings. |
|
Grades 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Ridiculously
funny; a horse that talks. |
|
All
|
Even
the teacher will laugh while reading these books. Pippi’s father is
the king of a cannibal island and her mother is dead, so she lives alone in a
house of monkey,
and a chest full of gold. And she does
anything she wants to do. |
|
|
Newbery
Award Winner. Exciting, interesting, scary.
An Eskimo girl is saved from starvation when a pack of wolves allows
her to share their food and shelter.
Realistic. |
|
The
House of the Sixty Fathers Grades 5 and
6 |
Frightening,
but realisticaly told story that takes place during
the Japanese occupation of |
|
The
Matchlock Gun Grades 3, 4, 5, 6 |
A
picture book for older children. Very
exciting story and
by Indians during the French and Indian Wars. A Newbery Award
Winner. |
Some
Books to Read Aloud to Middle School Students
Some
of the books suggested are most suitable for reading aloud to younger middle
school students; some are better for use with older middle-school pupils;
others are suitable for any student of middle-school age. Teachers should skim the first chapter of the
book and read the information presented on the dust jacket to determine if a
suggested book is suitable for the learners in their classes.
1. Best Short Stories, Editor
2. How to Eat Fried
3. Fifty-Two Miles of Terror.
4. Encyclopedia Brown Takes a Case,
5. Passport to Freedom,
6.
7. Out of the Sun,
8. Kareem!
Basketball Great,
9. The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet,
10.
New Sound,
11.
12.
Follow My Leader,
13.
Old Yeller,
14.
The Lost Ones,
16.
The Homet's Nest,
17.
Earthfasts,
18.
Trouble for the Tabors,
19.
The House of the Sixty Fathers,
20.
Hunger for Racing, J.M.
21.
Incident at Hawk's Hill,
22.
23.
Journey Outside,
24.
Bully of
25.
The Phantom Tolbooth,
26.
My Name is Pable, Aimee Somerfelt
27.
The Forgotten Door,
28.
Escape to
29.
A Winkle in Time,
30.
Funy Bananas, Georgess McHargue
31.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond,
32.
The Sound of Coaches,
33.
The Gift,
34.
Eskimo Boy,
35.
The Yearling,
Help students learn to use context to determine meanings of words when it is helpful.
Use
think-aloud to model how you would use clues in the text to determine the
meaning of a
word.
Increase Dictionary Skills
Play,
If you _______________ would you ___________, ______________, or
______________, where you put the new word in the first blank, and 3 different
choices in the others.
LEARNING WORDS FROM ORAL LANGUAGE ENCOUNTERS
(pp. 333-336)
Real Experiences –
using real pictures to experience the object, activity,
etc.
Student's first thoughts to
come to mind is probably interpreted different than visual the real
experiences.
EX. Cow-boy
Field Trip
Fire-truck
A second way to capitalize
on real experiences without the impracticalities of frequent or elaborate excursions
is to use experiences students have had in common outside in school.
Teachers must also remember
the importance of time on task and the specific purpose for providing new
experiences, which is to help students expand their meaning vocabularies
through development of new concepts and the acquisition of new labels (words)
for old concepts.
Vicarious Experience
an indirect experience.
EX. Volcano erupt: never
directly seen it vs. viewing a film, magazine, or textbook.
Pictures may be shown to
develop concepts before students read a story or article.
Pictures sets designed to
help students explore and use new words are on the market.
Vol 1, Issue 12 April 5, 2004
PREREADING STRATEGY
house
old man
young man
hatred
ugly eye
death
tub,
blood, knife
buried
floor
police
heartbeat
guilt
crazy
confession