Encouraging reading

Read and Read it again

Read and Read it again - developing the confidence and love of learning to read.


Dont feel pressured to constantly read new books to your students or give your students a new reading book everyday.


Remember your favourite books as a kids.

Research tells us:

Vocabulary

Hearing a story once is a great experience both educationally and otherwise.  However, when it is revisited over and over again more learning is encouraged.  Vocabulary words that are difficult for young readers are often easily dismissed in books that are read just once or infrequently.  In contrast, when a book is read over and over again understanding of the vocabulary words is increased and the repetition helps children learn them to where they can begin using the vocabulary on their own in their own context.  

Increases Reading Comprehension

Just as vocabulary is picked-up in repeat reads, repeat reads help with increased reading comprehension.  With each time the book is read the child is able not only to remember it better, but gains a more clear perspective of such things as cause and effect, sequencing, plot structure and more.  

Confidence With Books

There is a confidence that comes with getting to know books on a more personal level.   pre-readers will revel in the ability to “read” the story on their own.  We know they might not be able to actually decode the words on their own, but being able to tell the story on their own will give them a sense of independence, confidence and even ownership of the story.

Fosters a Love of Books

It is the same with all readers young and old alike, when you fall in love with a story it becomes a part of you.  The characters become familiar friends who your make connections with an remember.

Storyline online

Online reading resource
check it out   https://www.storylineonline.net/
storylineonline

Great selection of books that are read by celebrities and has the story written across the screen.

Good opportunity for our students to hear and see literacy.

                                                                                                               

Reading support - what is the goal?

Reading Support

I am currently supporting a 10 year boy with Autism and Attention Deficit disorder who is reading at a 6 year old level. He enjoys reading but does not like any written follow up task as he has limited fine motor skills.

I have made a range of activities to give him the opportunity to work on his specific reading goals without causing him too much anxiety.

The stories we have been reading have compound words . He is now very proud he can in his words read "big words" by recognise smaller words.

Word endings to encourage this young man to look at the ends of words and recognise they change eg looked, looking and read then appropriately.














     I created these to support his understanding of the new vocabulary in his new books.









I have created a book with enough pages that he can
recreate the book in sequence.
This allows us to sequence  the pictures
and discuss the story line. We can make up our own words verbally to go with the pictures.
He can match the sentence to the picture.
He can also underline the words that show answers to our questions on our laminted words.

Reading strategies

Guiding our learners through Reading

Reading strategies for our students.

Here is a copy of some of the planned strategies I am using with students working at Blue level (5 1/2 to 6 years) based on ideas from Sally Clendon. We are reading the same book each day for four days but for a different purpose. The students have other opportunities to read different reading material at other times during the day.

Shared Reading Opportunities

Shared Reading Opportunities 

Impact on children’s conceptual knowledge and reasoning skills.

• Builds vocabulary and language comprehension.

• Exposes children to specific components of print and book conventions which 

  facilitates the learning of letter names, shapes and sounds

Emergent literacy print concepts should including: 

• Book orientation knowledge 

• Understanding of principles involving the directional arrangement of print on the page 

• The knowledge that print, not picture, contains the story 

• Understanding of important reading terminology such as word, letter, beginning of sentence, and top of page 

• Understanding of simple punctuation marks

• Key factor is the conversation that  takes place around shared storybook reading.

Our goal is to maximise interactions page-by-page .

This a great opportunity to introduce important vocabulary and extend our children language and understanding.

Where to start with our Emergent Literacy Learners.

Where to start with our Emergent Literacy Learners.

I am often asked where to start teaching a child to read or are they ready to learn.

The main goal when working with our young learners or students who have additional learning need is to encourage a positive interest in learning and reading.

I believe we start to learn the skills for reading when we are very young if we are provided with the  right opportunities.

So what should be included in a literacy programme for emergent learners?

Give your learners lots of opportunity to hear you read to them and with them.

Let your learners see you writing, write together, write for real reason and purposes.

My Inquiry - My story so far.

Alternative Assessments for Students with Additional needs.

As part of my on going Inquiry into appropriate assessment tools to use with students who have additional needs I have investigated the following tools.

Literacy	Maths
Narrative assessment Expanded English Framework (Fuel and Launch) -         Listening , reading,  viewing framework -         Speaking, writing, viewing framework Developmental Writing scale Developmental Spelling  Assessment	Narrative assessment Extended Number framework and matrix (Fuel and Launch) Bracken - School Readiness  (cost to purchase or may be available RTLB)

I have tried these assessments with a range of students at Sommerville special school and several students within the Manaiakalani schools.
These assessments have given more detailed assessment information for students who can not be assessed using standardised school assessments.

Narrative assessment, Expanded Framework and Bracken - school readiness are all recognised assessment with the Ministry of Education. These assessments cater for students with very complex learning needs.

The Developmental Writing scale and Developmental Spelling assessment were recommended by 
                                   

  

Dr Sally Clendon PhD Univ North Carolina Chapel Hill

Senior Lecturer in Speech and Language Therapy, Massey University NZ.

I have found that these assessments are very informative for establishing what the  student  can do  and what their next learning steps should be.

Please feel free to contact me if you would like some more information.

The Numbers Talk

Oral Language and a rich vocabulary 

- the key to successful learning.

The Numbers really do matter!

Reading mileage and Reading at home really does stack up!

As a teacher we need to find ways to create links and build language - this will help achievement in all curriculum areas.

Language development and Reading Comprehension

Are your students struggling with reading comprehension ?  
Do they have the language skills and vocabulary to answer the comprehension questions during reading?

We need to be offering our students opportunity and stimulation to help their Oral language development.

We need to teach the language and the skills of comprehension.

Gail Arriola-Bagayas  our speech therapist at Sommerville has shared this fabulous resources that makes it very  clear about the developmental steps in understanding questions.

Blank-handout.pdf

Check the great ideas in this handout.

Sometimes we need to unpack the learning goals.

Please get in touch with me if i can help with your reading programmes or helping develop your students comprehension skills. 

Book time with Donna 






Verbal reasoning -  the big picture.