Dr Connie's Blog

I have been trying to figure out how I can make this blog even more useful for busy teachers, like you! What do you think of this idea?

Rather than post a literacy ‘tip’ on the blog, I thought I would open it up to a Q & A format. Ask me a question and I’ll send you a reply. This way, my blog becomes an ongoing, engaging exchange of information and resources. We ALL need help when it comes to ‘falling’ readers, writers, and thinkers. I would love to help you and your kids…

AND, I promise to check it every day so that you receive an answer as quickly as possible. Sound good?

So, ask away, and let’s see if we can generate a dialogue that will generate ideas and strategies for catching falling students…

READY, SET, LET’S GO….

LET’S CATCH THEM ALL!

Ahhhh….how wise was John Dewey? He knew that assessment leaders to reflection which then drives planning and lands as teaching!  By starting where the learning IS, we teach smarter, not harder… and kids learn better and faster.

How do we know where the learner is? ASSESS, OBSERVE, REFLECT on a DAILY basis….that’s how!

Hats off to you, Mr. Dewey…

Very few universities offer Doctorate degrees in reading…Nova Southeastern University/Fischler School of Education does….both a blended model or totally online…your choice!

For more information, please email Dr. Connie Hebert, Professor of Reading, at: ch336@nova.edu

Learn and grow….

What’s the most common characteristic of falling readers? It’s word-by-word reading. One way to address this issue is to provide daily opportunities for students to read and reread in order to build fluency. If we increase fluency, we increase comprehension! Here are some tips:

*Allow kids to choose what THEY would like to reread and then make sure they do it!

*During guided reading, prompt students by saying, “I’ll read a line, you read a line.” Watch amazing fluency results!

*Encourage kids to reread their own writing, often…

*Don’t be afraid to let students take basal texts or reading series anthologies off the shelves so they they can reread stories that were read in small group lessons. Get those into the hands of kids, DAILY!!

Let kids read and reread….often! Remember, when we reread something, the text remains the same, the reader does not. Lack fluency? Reread!

To correct the ‘pencil grip,’ give the child a fat cotton ball. Position it between the pencil/pen and 3rd finger. The child needs to press that cotton ball against the pencil/pen while writing. If it falls, they have to put it back! Over time, the brain connects the pressure of the 3rd finger against the pencil/pen and will be able to correct the grip consequently….when the 3rd finger presses the cotton ball firmly against the pencil/pen, the thumb and index finger automatically fall into the correct positions! Voila….fix that grip! They will enjoy writing more and their hands won’t hurt as much…

Share your experiences with the ‘pencil grip’…

Prior knowledge is the key to a treasure chest of greater comprehension if it is stocked properly and maintained regularly. If you don’t believe me, try reading a passage from a journal about a subject that you know NOTHING about. Watch what happens to your comprehension, fluency, motivation, and recall. Now, try writing about that same subject…difficult! Without prior knowledge, we are lost in an unknown sea, searching for a way to reach a familiar shore. In other words, everything we experience in life goes into a treasure chest of prior knowledge that is stored in the brain.

Prior knowledge acts as a key to many doorways of understanding. Build a storehouse of knowledge and engage students in daily actions that help their brains activate this knowledge. Then watch how reading and writing skills improve!

We all learn by observing what competent, successful people do. For instance, we learn skills and strategies by watching good cooks, we adapt new moves from observing good skiers, and we can learn from the experiences and hardships of good dieters. Children need to know what good readers and writers do. If they have grown up without daily modeling of language and literacy skills, they will need to know these things even more than others if they hope to catch up to their peers.

When we engage children in the practice of shared reading, we involve them in the very things that good readers do. We model good reading while also drawing them into the act of reading. Perhaps one of the greatest teaching tools available to anyone who teaches is the ability to model. Master, this, and you will catch many kids who might otherwise continue to founder, all the while looking for someone to actually show them how it’s done.

How can we use magnetic letters to teach kids how words work? Magnetic letters provide opportunities for a tactile, kinesthetic approach to learning about letter and sounds within words. The very act of making and breaking words with real letters is powerful and should be used daily with struggling kids. I think the ‘magic’ of these little letters lies in the numerous possibilities for teaching kids to be flexible and successful at the same time. Flexibility occurs when we expect the child to use these letters in a variety of ways to create and build new words. Success is achieved by starting from what the child KNOWS and working from there to create new understanding. Here are a few categories for sorting magnetic letters:

*Uppercase and lowercase letters

*Letters that have half circles

*Letters versus numbers

*Letters that have sticks

*Vowels versus consonants

*Red Letters and blue letters

*Known chunks to make new words (i.e. an–and–sand–stand–stands–standing)

The challenge for teachers comes in knowing how to use magnetic letters to create a memorable and effective experience for kids who might otherwise never learn ‘the code.’

Students need to be taught the proper way to position themselves for writing. Many of them just don’t know there is a proper way! Consider the following instructions as a reminder of the proper handwriting position:

*Sit up straight and tall.

*Place both feet flat on the floor.

*Move your chair close to the desk without squishing your stomach.

*Tilt your paper slightly away from the hand you write with, and hold the corner of it with the hand you don’t write with.

*Place your writing arm up to your elbow, on the desk as your write. This will keep your hand and wrist from getting tired because they will be supported by your arm.

*Relax your shoulders, and look up once in a while to give your eyes a rest.

Ready, set, write! Learn more in Catch a Falling Writer: www.conniehebert.com

Thanks!

We have all seen and worked with kids who struggle with writing common sight words. Without a strong base of sight words in their personal bank of writing vocabulary, these kids continue to struggle and to attend to each and every action at a painfully slow speed. They simply aren’t able to focus on what they are writing because they are too busy trying to remember how to write? Writing words FAST is one way to build a bank of words that are automatic and easily retrieved by the child. This practice can be done with individual or with children in a small group setting.

For more ideas on how to help kids build a repertoire of sight words, see my book, Catch a Falling Reader (2nd edition) at www.conniehebert.com