More about Emergent Literacy-HAVE FUN!

The very first post of this blog focused on the fact that it is never too early to begin working on emergent literacy. The good thing is that this work does not have to be a chore! Developing a child's love of reading is fun (even if you can't read yourself, I dare say)! When you spend time with a child and a book you can build a relationship around imagination, wonder, and the amazing worlds that are found in books.

I would venture to say that most educators have heard about the wonderful education system in Finland. Finnish students do very well compared to those around the world. Also, the teachers report high satisfaction rates with the profession. Their school leaders believe that emergent literacy should be fostered first through PLAY (click here for an article on Finnish kindergarten). This makes for a wonderful environment in which to build the foundational pre-reading skills that students need for reading success. Check out this quick video that is explains the difference between "emergent literacy" and "reading readiness. Finnish teachers weave opportunities to develop rhyming and other pre-reading skills into the fun. There is a saying in Finland that goes like this:

“Those things you learn without joy you will forget easily.”

If you are going to teach our youngest students, please be ready to play. Show them the love of books through enjoying them with the students.

Happy, Joyful Reading!

Critical Reading Inventory 2nd Edition- Awesome & Out-of-Print (but available)!

In my reading endorsement course I am exploring various reading inventories. There is so much out there that you could use for determining what areas your young reading students need intervention. I am not a fan of testing just for information. If the information is used for a benefit that matches or exceeds the effort required for the assessment, then I would want to learn more.

One of the inventories that seems to be worth the time of teachers and students is the Critical Reading Inventory-2nd edition (CRI-2) that was written by Applegate, Quinn, and Applegate in 2007. And, as the title of this posts states, it is now out of print! Don't let this stop you from reading on to find out why I think this is an inventory/assessment worthy of your attention. (Here is a quick link to an Amazon listing where you can buy the book and read a couple of reviews.) I'd like to point out a few features of the CRI-2 that would be of great value for our current reading focus on critical thinking.

First of all, this inventory asks you to find out about your subject/student. There is no substitute for building a rapport with your student. When there is a strong, positive relationship between teacher and student, the motivation of the student soars. This has been shown to be true in many studies. You may find this page from the American Psychological Association to be interesting and informational.

The second aspect that I find to be a great benefit is that you have assessment material for Pre-K through 9th grade! I appreciate that the older students are included. How many discipline problems in middle and high school could be avoided if a student could just read well and understand the reading!

Lastly, as we are all guiding students toward higher level/critical thinking, that is exactly what this system helps you assess. You can assess three types of comprehension that range from recalling facts to analyzing what has been read.

In a perfect world this would be paired with a system for teaching the skills that are being assessed. Maybe there is one out there. If so, please comment and let me know!

Happy Reading!

Website Review: Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity

I'm very much interested in helping students that struggle in school. The whole child is important to me: their health, their mood, their abilities, their weaknesses.  I have worked with students that have been labeled as behavioral challenges and found that many of them struggle to read and learn. Many times the behavior was a bi-product of their learning challenges. This gives me HOPE. Maybe we can help with the behavior concerns by addressing the learning needs!!! More than 80% of students with learning disabilities are struggling due to DYSLEXIA! Hello, maybe we should be addressing dyslexia in a major way! Maybe things would be different for so many...including all the other people in the dyslexic person's life. 

I found an amazing website called The Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity. The subtitle is "slow reader, out of the box thinker". I LOVE THAT! What if we were able to empower these struggling readers to embrace the creativity that many of them possess? They may find the strength to deal with the reading struggles, which CAN be helped. How amazing would that be!

Watch this video called "A Letter to My Teacher" from their website and see why I am excited!

This website is a wonderful collection of information and inspiration for those with dyslexia or those who have a stake in this: student, teacher, parent, policy maker, community (everyone). You can learn what the disability looks like, read testimonies of some people with dyslexia, and find out what is going on in politics to bring the most common learning disorder out into the forefront of our efforts in education. Did you know that over HALF of the people in prison in America are basically ILLITERATE???? I see a way to address the "school to prison pipeline" by addressing the needs of non-readers. Let's be respectful and responsive to these learners. Think of the potential impact on incarceration rates. It would be hard to list all of the knowledge I have gained form this sight. It's a treasure-trove. Check it out!

Part 2-High Functioning Autism and Reading Comprehension-Why is it so Hard?

-In my previous post I tried to help parents and teachers of Autistic readers understand WHY reading comprehension is so HARD. Just to recap, here are three important cognitive areas that are often not working for your Autistic child:

1. Theory of Mind-the ability to understand other's point of view or perspective.

2. Central Coherence-ability to bring details together into a whole concept or idea.

3. Executive Functioning-the process of organizing, planning, and monitoring progress when presented with a situation.

So, this is Part 2. Now that you have an idea of WHY reading comprehension is such a challenge, I want to share some ways parents and teachers can help. The information for these tips comes from this excellent article! 

STEP 1: Build up background knowledge of the subject in the reading. What does this even mean? Look at pictures together of things that relate the story. Talk about the pictures. Ask your child what they know. See if they have an understanding of what the picture is really showing.

STEP 2: Create mental images of what they are reading. Usually when you read about a delicious meal, you can "see" it in your head. This picture helps you understand what you've read. Your Autistic child struggles with this, so help him make those images. How? Looking at pictures in the book and talking about them. Use lots of description. "Think out loud" as you describe the picture. It's a lot like the Step 1, but this goes beyond naming to describing!

STEP 3: Make Connections. This is so easy to do, so effective, and doesn't require any materials! When your child is reading about the pigeon who wants to drive the bus, make a connection to the bus she rides each day to school. Point out the pigeon on the side of the road as you drive to visit your family. There are so many connections you can make (text to text, text to self, and text to world). Typical readers do this with some ease. Your Autistic reader needs help to make the connections.

STEP 4: Engage in Discussion. Again, no materials are needed! Just you and your time. Both are precious and so worth spending on your child. Just talk about the who, what, why, where, how, I wonder, and so on. 

STEP 5: Summarize their Understanding. Again, this just needs you and your time. Out-loud, help your child put their understanding together! They need us to SHOW them how we take what we know and come to a conclusion.

Still not sure? Here's a video clip of a few activities that touch on several of the steps mentioned above. The video is an ad for a teaching resource, however it's short and is a great demonstration of some of the steps that have been listed in this post. 

You are your child's first teacher.  And you'll probably always be their favorite. Never forget that!

Happy Reading!

High Functioning Autism and Reading Comprehension-Why is it so Hard? Part 1

Autism effects your child in so many ways! Your child is having trouble with tags in his clothes. The noises are like razors to her ears. Their food is a "weird" texture and impossible to eat! This is just some of the sensory stuff! Then there are the social challenges. It is also a problem when we ask them to stop those repetitive behaviors that make them feel safe, secure. So many things are SO difficult for your Autistic child.

I want to focus on people with high functioning Autism (f.k.a. Asperger's). With all the challenges that many Autistic students face, one area that has been mastered for many is READING. YAY...something they are really good at, that doesn't involve other PEOPLE, and can be like a "movie in your head." The problem is that by the time your high-functioning Autistic child reaches 3rd grade you may see that they can read the 6th grade stories, but they struggle with COMPREHENSION of what they have read. They can't make connections to the text. They can't tell you about what they read. They can't apply what they have read outside of the context of the book.

WHY is comprehension so hard? There are three ways that your child's Autism is having a direct impact on the ability to comprehend what they have read. Here's a quick overview of each...

1. Theory of Mind-the ability to understand other's point of view or perspective. Comprehension of reading relies on understand the feelings, perspectives, and emotions of the characters in the story.

2. Central Coherence-ability to bring details together into a whole concept or idea. Your reader may not be able to piece together the details that were read and infer the theme or main idea of the story.

3. Executive Functioning-the process of organizing, planning, and monitoring progress when presented with a situation. There are many processes that are used when retelling what they know from their reading. They have to organize their thoughts, possibly in sequence. They have to access any prior knowledge they have in order to really understand, and so much more. All of this goes on at the same time! A typical person does this intuitively. Your Autistic reader cannot. WOW.

So, what can a parent do? This sounds so immense, right? Look for Part 2 of this post for ways to help your reader and have fun doing it, too! If you just can't wait to read more, check out this article that spells it all out ! :)

You are your child's first teacher.  And you'll probably always be their favorite. Never forget that!

Happy Reading!

Never Too Young for Reading

It seems like there is always a bandwagon for educators to ride: STEM, STEAM, phonics, whole-language, blah-blah-blah. I am not saying these are not wonderful movements in education. We enrich our students' learning through a mixing of many of these movements. Consider the bandwagons surrounding when is the best time to begin literacy instruction. Is it Pre-K? Maybe. You might think so after reading an article from The American Educator called "The Promise of Preschool" (click on title to read article). Is it 1st grade? I honestly doubt that. Some, such as the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), would say that even infancy is not too young (read more). Literacy in infancy has also been heralded by Marie Clay, a champion and author on effective reading instruction (link to more about her work). Clay coined the phrase "emergent literacy." To summarize, she felt that the child's family and home environment play a crucial role in literacy development, which she felt begins at birth. 

Well, that last one is the bandwagon for me. I know from personal experience that a baby can fall in love with a book well before he is ever challenged to try and read that book. A baby can find joy in the relationship that is built when someone they love says those words in the best voice and invites them to imagine so many wonderful people, places, and things that are found in a book.

An idea from the NAEYC article at the link above is to make a Book Nook for babies. Here are a few tips to make yours baby-friendly:

1. Have a rug on the floor, but you don't need all those pillows. Pillows may be cute and cuddly, but they can trip a novice-walker and they don't work well with a baby's unique "physique."

2. Books should be low to the ground. You could stand them up on the rug, or put them in a low basket. A shelf is best used for the older children.

3. Provide sturdy books that can sustain the many ways a baby may "engage" with the book.

4. Most importantly, don't forget to insert YOURSELF as an irresistible aspect of the Book Nook.

You are your child's first teacher.  And you'll probably always be their favorite. Never forget that!

Happy Reading!