Literacy for ALL Students

Or “why no student is too anything”

“No student is too anything to be able to

read and write”

David Yoder, DJI-AbleNet Literacy Lecture, ISAAC

2000

Balanced Literacy

• Uses all valid parts of literacy instruction – not one approach;

• Phonics & Whole Language;• Works for students all along the

literacy continuum – from emergent to formal;

• Four Blocks is balanced literacy instruction.

Oral and Written Language Development (Koppenhaver, Coleman, Kalman & Yoder, 1991. Adapted from Teale and Sulzby, 1989)

Literacy

AAC/Speaking

Writing

Listening

Reading

Emergent Literacy Development

• Emergent Literacy is “the reading and writing behaviours that precede and develop into conventional literacy”;

• Literacy development is constructive, interactive, emergent and recursive;

• Literacy development is a process that begins at birth.

Means of Communication and

InteractionCommunication at any level,

intentional or not, must be encouraged.

Mitch

• 2011• Incredibly engaged;• Went from understanding no Concepts

about Print to understanding over half;• Greatly improved phonological

awareness;• At end of year signed his name “Midd

ada”

On the way to conventional literacy…

Four Blocks

Four Blocks

• Created by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall

• www.fourblocks.com• Four Blocks in Special Ed wiki

https://fourblock.wikispaces.com/

Guided Reading

Guided Reading

• Help students to understand that:– Reading involves thinking and meaning making– They can use a range of strategies in their

reading to collect information, understand text, etc.

• Must use a wide variety of books and other print materials– Commercial books– Personal experience books– Custom books

• NOT listening comprehension

Purposes for Reading

• Need to set a purpose every time you do guided reading

• If you don’t set a purpose students think they have to remember everything – or become passive

• Purpose needs to be broad enough to motivate processing of entire text

Guided Reading

• 1 book per week• Different purpose each day• Build confidence• Some students will participate in the

repeated readings or in setting purposes as they become more skilled

• Help students become independent

Types of Guided Reading

• Picture walk• Before-During-After (Three Part)• Directed Reading-Thinking Activity• KWL (What do I Know, what do I Want to know, what have I Learned)

3 part Guided Reading

• Before – discuss title, any concepts in the book you think need explaining or expanding, set the purpose

• During – read the book• After – discuss the purpose

Cock-A-Moo-Moo

1. What is your favourite animal in the book?

2. What sound is the funniest that the rooster makes?

3. What feelings does the rooster have during the book?

4. Why do you think the fox was sneaking in?

5. What farm animals aren’t in the book?

#1 - What is your favourite animal in the book?

Participation for students with CCN

• If they have a comprehensive communication system (eg PODD) then they can use that to participate across the day

• If they don’t then we need to provide ways for them to participate

• AND we need to work towards getting them a comprehensive communication system

#2 - What sound is the funniest that the rooster makes?

#3 - What feelings does the rooster have during the book?

#4 - Why do you think the fox was sneaking in?

#5 - What farm animals aren’t in the book?

Repetition with VarietyTo learn a skill and generalise it across

contexts, instruction must provide repetition of the skills in a variety of

ways

Variety

• Variety of purposes• Variety of approaches• Variety of texts

Directed Reading-Thinking Activity DR-TA (Stauffer)

• Students LOOK at title or pictures and predict story

• Students READ to a predetermined stopping point

• Students PROVE the accuracy of their predictions and modify them or make new predictions

Variety of texts

• Commercial books• Fiction and non-fiction• Language Experience/custom texts• Created texts about class

experiences• Personal alphabet books• TarHeel Reader books

What does Emma do?by Mr Clark

Self-Selected Reading

Self-Selected Reading

• Help students to:– Understand why they might want to

learn to read– Become automatic in skill application– Choose to read after they learn how

• It isn’t self directed if you don’t chose it yourself

• You can’t get good at it if it is too difficult

Self-Selected Reading for Students with Disabilities

• Need to make books accessible to ALL students

• Many children with disabilities have fewer opportunities to practice than their peers and are often passive participants (Koppenhaver & Yoder, 1992)

Self-Selected Reading Resources

• Commercial books• Custom books• TarHeel Reader books• Digital storybook apps on iPads

Custom Books

• Books with familiar photos can be more meaningful and motivating for many children

• You can make older content with simple text

• Students can get involved in book creation

• Can be made accessible to ALL students

Tar Heel Reader

• www.tarheelreader.org• Lots of simple books on a wide

variety of topics suitable for older students (and students of all ages)

Digital Storybooks on iPad

Created Bookshelf in iBooks

Writing

Writing

• Students who write become better readers, writers and thinkers

• Writing without standards• Learn in classroom writing

communities:–Write for real reasons– See others do so– Interact with peers and teachers about

written content, use and form

“Pencils”

• Without a pencil writing doesn’t improve

• Without writing, reading development will be limited

• If a student doesn’t have a pencil, you need to find one

Writing With Alternative Pencils CD

Writing and Emergent Literacy

• The function of literacy is as important as the form

• Students need to understand why writing is important

Kade and Georgia

Developmental Spelling Stages

• Print has meaning (emergent writing) – scribble, numbers, letter-like strings, letters

• Visual Cue – read/spell in environmental context, tuned to distinctive visual features

• Phonetic Cue – sound it out, “glue to print” (initial sound, initial +final, intial, medial + final)

• Transitional – rule based e.g. Putting past tense on every verb

• Conventional

Print Has Meaning Stage

Visual Cue Stage

Phonetic Cue Stage

Conventional

Three rabbits went to Canberra

Personal Connection

The power of starting from the things children love the most!

Working with Words

Working with Words

• Help students to become strategic in reading words

• Words instruction should be– Words based– Experience based– Age-appropriate

• Should result in students who read and write:– More– More successfully and independently– With greater enjoyment

Successful early reading instruction

• Decoding (phonics) and sight word instruction

• Frequent opportunities to read and re-read easy, interesting and motivating books

• Frequent opportunities to write for personally meaningful reasons using invented spelling and no standards

• Frequent experiences reading a book with an adult for enjoyment and understanding

Word Wall

• Used to teach words that you don’t want students to have to work to decode or spell

• Learning not exposure – about learning 5 words not being exposed to 20

• Need/want/use vs. curriculum driven direct instruction

Word Wall Use Basics

• 5 words a week• Cumulative list– On the wall until every student spells

each word correctly without looking

• Introduce homophones in separate weeks, not all at once

• Daily 10 minute activities

Making Words

• Cunningham and Cunningham (1992)• Scaffolded program to encourage

students to become confident about making individual words

• Teaches students to look for spelling patterns in words and recognise the differences that result when a single letter is changed

Onset Rime

• E.g ack, ail, ain, ake, ame, an, ine• Teach one word representing each of

these endings on your Word Wall – then in other activities teach the children what to do to transfer “back” to “sack, hack” etc

Willans Hill Four Blocks

• Rural special school in NSW• In 2011 began Four Blocks in every

classroom for a minimum of 2 hours a day

• 70 students – wide range of disabilities

• 27 students assessed completely at beginning of year

Emergent vs Conventional

Term 4

Term 1

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

ConventionalEmergent

Four Blocks Notes

• Plan for your most challenging student – the others will fall into place

• All students in the Willans Hill study showed increased engagement, increased concentration span and decreased challenging behaviour

• Teachers in the Willans Hill study said they were much more engaged too!

“No student is too anything to be able to

read and write”

David Yoder, DJI-AbleNet Literacy Lecture, ISAAC

2000