Phonological Awareness
Our group explored websites that have emphasis on phonological awareness. There are activities and games that children can do, and teachers and parents can utilize. I hope they are helpful to all of you guys!
1. Readinga-z
www.readinga-z.com/phonics/index.html
The website focuses all on phonological awareness and phonics. This program uses direct and explicit instructional strategies for teaching phonological awareness and phonics. Reading A-Z provides instructional resources for teaching the sounds and symbols of language and their relationships to one another using 30 phonological awareness lessons and 68 phonics lessons. The website is broken down into eight different sections: Phonological Awareness Lessons, Phonological Awareness Assessment, Phonics Lesson, Phonics Assessment, Phonogram Flashcards, Decodable Books, Read-Aloud Books, and Sound/Symbol Books. Each lesson provide teacher and parent many resources they can use with their kids. In the Phonological Awareness lesson children are taught to notice, differentiate, think about and manipulate sounds – from sounds of words to sounds of individual phonemes. Some of the things the lessons focus on are blend syllables; manipulate initial sounds, segment syllables and onset and rime. Phonological Awareness Assessment is where the children listen for, identify, discriminate, and produce sounds. The assessments cover rhyme, onset and rime and syllable awareness. The phonics lessons contain worksheets that focus on consonants, short vowels, and word families, blending of sounds, long vowels, open vowel, vowel digraphs and other vowel patterns. There are two phonics assessments available. One assessment focuses on the child’s ability to associate a sound with a given symbols which covers decoding simple CVC words. The second one focuses on the child’s ability to decode nonsense words which is blending, long vowels, digraphs, and diphthongs. Phonogram flashcards are usefully in teaching word building. The flashcard focuses on the five short vowel sounds. Decoding books can be useful with a child who needs practice decoding the sound/syllables relationships in words that they have already learned. The read-aloud books help children hear a certain sound that they have been working on. Sound/Symbol books let the children read by themselves while they focus on sound/symbol relationships. All of these lessons are great to do with kids who are struggling and kids that are not struggling. The more practice a child receives the better they will understand the sounds of the letters and how the letters work together. There are so many opportunities to practice certain phonics and phonological awareness on this website. It is a great website for parents and teachers who want their children to become better readers.
Evaluated by: Ashley Chumchal
2. Half Pint Kids
www.halfpintkids.com
The website, halfpintkids.com is a wonderful tool for parents or teachers to use with children to help them with their emergent reading and activities for phonemic awareness.
Half Pint Kids has "readers" that a parent or teacher can buy that are fun to read, easy to decode and affordable. The readers were written by a Kindergarten teacher so they are both practical and effective as each word was carefully chosen. The readers are based upon the principles of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction. Half-Pint Readers introduce only a few sounds or new skills at a time while providing lots of opportunities for practice before adding more skills. The books are centered around a theme and each book builds upon the skills of a previous book.
Half Pint Kids also has over 30 different activities that can be done with a child to go along with the readers. Some of the activities prepare the child for reading while others give instructions on how to teach and blend sounds. After the child has mastered the skill, there are games and activities to review and practice that skill.
The downside to this website is that the readers are not free. They are for sale on the website along with several games and activities to reinforce phonemic awareness.
Overall, this website has many great free activities to do with a child to get them started reading. Whether you plan to buy the readers or not, the website offers valuable information, games and activities that would get any child ready to read!
Evaluated by: Callista Young
3. Free-reading
www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Phonological_Awareness_Activities
Freereading.net is a fantastic website with numerous resources and activities for students and teachers particularly dealing with phonological awareness.
There are five tabs including, Core Activities, Educator-Contributed Activities, About Activities, Teaching Tips and Resources.
Under Find Activities there are many resources including- Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Comprehension, Vocabulary, Fluency and Writing.
If you click on Phonological Awareness there are numerous activities for building students phonological awareness, these activities are ordered in skill level, so once your students master the skill you are able to scroll down to a new level. Each activity provides explicit directions and details and some also provide a video of the activity or skill being learned. Some of the activities are identifying and generating rhyming words, body part game, counting words in a sentence and blending syllables name game.
Under educator-contributed activities there are over 70 other different activities for phonological awareness.
Under about the activities there is a complete overview on the importance of phonological awareness, two important manipulation skills are:
• Oral segmenting, which refers to taking spoken language and breaking it into separate parts. Phoneme segmenting, for instance, teaches students that words are composed of sounds, which they need to understand in order for sounding out to make sense.
• Oral blending, which refers to taking a sequence of sounds and putting them together to form spoken language. Phoneme blending is what students will need to do when they sound out words to pronounce them correctly. And information provided by the national reading panel.
The teaching tips tab provides great strategies and explanations on the lessons and activities that are very helpful. And the last tab which is resources provides picture cards that you can download, sound pronunciation guides in mp3 format that provides the recommended way to segment words into onset-rimes and phonemes
Freereading.net is a very useful tool for educators and great learning activities for students. It is also a collaborative website where you can share lessons and ideas!
Evaluated by: Jennifer Porton
4. PBS Spelling Games
http://pbskids.org/games/spelling.html
PBS is a great resource for young children’s learning. I particularly explored the area, spelling. It was such a wonderful website because how it delivered the phonological practices for kids. I mean, it was fun to go through different games/activities because of its rich sound and visual effects. The activities are animated so colorfully and more than that, the narrator’s exciting intonation was what grabbed my attention the most. I think children would not feel boring doing these activities even though most of them are similar. What they do is, in the spelling section, the narrator tells the sound of the letter for them to guess the correspondent letter that eventually makes up a word. For example, the narrator says, “Which letter makes the sound “p” pig?” And then the child has to choose the letter. When they get right, the narrator encourages the child, saying comments such as “Sensational!” There are different levels, which I thought it was good. In each game, there are always directions read from the narrator in fun background music, that children would never get bored. The only downside is that you might need to dig and choose what games to do according to specific practices you want children to learn. And there are a lot of activities other than the spelling part.
I had such fun time exploring it, and I am sure the kids will enjoy them, and teachers and parents can use them, pulling up this website to do the activities together and have some fun learning the sounds of the letter!
Evaluated by: Yire Lee
Showing posts with label Strategies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Strategies. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Promoting Phonemic Awareness Activities
“Patti’s Activities”
http://teams.lacoe.edu/DOCUMENTATION/classrooms/patti/k-1/activities/phonemic.html
Learning more about phonemics has really opened my eyes these past couple of weeks. I wasn’t too familiar with the term before, and I love the idea of teaching children different ways to build their phonemic skills, including rhyming, syllable segmentation, etc. These types of activities are the foundation of literacy skills, and crucial to the learning process. The website I chose this time is less interactive for children, but it does give a variety of different activities that could be used with children in building phonemic skills.
The first thing I noticed, on the Home Page was that there are activities for both Kinder-1st grade, as well as 2nd-3rd so that as the students progress, they have different kinds of activities to be able to work with. Some of the areas focused on include Rhyming, Syllable Segmentation, Beginning Sound Substitution, Sound Isolation, and Phonemic Segmentation, and I will discuss a couple of them.
The rhyming activities seem to really engage the students, creating a fun and entertaining environment. There are games requiring rhythm, and paying close attention to the words they are hearing. For example, one game asks that the students clap twice, snap once, and then say a word. They then repeat the process, using a rhyming word. It seems like a fun idea, and the only negative would be getting all of the children to be able to clap and snap together. Another fun idea involves the children walking around in a circle with the teacher saying words in a sequence. When the children realize that a word doesn’t rhyme they immediately sit down. While this doesn’t require the students to make up their own words, it allows them to work on paying attention and recognizing things that don’t fit. Another variation could be asking them to think of words on their own, and when they cannot think of one, they could also sit down.
In teaching sound isolation, a fun and creative idea was singing to the tune of “Old Macdonald.” It’s a song that mostly all children are taught growing up, and changing it up a little bit could be exciting. What I like about this particular activity is that the teacher allows the students to come up with the answers themselves. She will ask, for example, “What is the first sound in these three words… bat.. ball… baby?” And the students think, then respond “B!” So they then sing, “With a –b- -b- here, and a –b- -b- there, here a –b-, there a –b-, everywhere a –b- -b-!” They can then make it more challenging by asking for middle and end sounds, rather than just the beginning.
Finally, a simple yet effective activity for phonemic segmentation is to give the children each a rubber band. As the teacher gives them a word, they slowly sound the word out, stretching out the rubber band for every sound in that word. This allows them to focus on each and every sound individually within a word, which could in the long run, help them to sound out words themselves while reading.
Each of these different activities seem fun and exciting. They engage the children, making them want to learn, and proving very beneficial. Again, phonemic skills are essential to building literacy, and could even make the children more social, as they are forced to become engaged in various activities with their peers!
Evaluated by: Kayla Acosta
http://www.k-3learningpages.net/web%20phonemic%20awareness.htm
This website was one that I found through much networking. It’s almost like a hole in the wall restaurant you just happen to try. It’s actually an awesome website. It gives you a general idea about phonemic awareness, why it’s important and then it provides a lot of links for further curiosity on the subject. There are links for games, literature, and documents that help parents or teachers with their approach for teaching reading. Yopp & Yopp explain, “teachers should consider various dimensions of phonemic awareness instruction when planning and designing learning activities.” It’s important to have a diverse lesson plan when teaching these different aspects of literacy. To me this would be the most fun to plan because rhyming is one of my favorites and kids love it too. This is a great website it is a place for teachers to have a source for ideas of games in the classroom, for the computer and even at home.
According to this article http://www.reading.org/downloads/positions/ps1025_phonemic.pdf
“phonemic awareness abilities in kindergarten…appear to be the best single predictor of successful reading acquisition.” So maybe it would be of benefit to students if we focus on phonemic awareness early and engage them in activities such as these that teach about rhyme, beginning sounds, and syllables. This website is good because different children may need different forms of phonemic awareness instruction and experiences so this site provides a variety of ‘experiences.’
A child's level of phonemic awareness on entering school is widely held to be the strongest single determinant of the success that she or he will experience in learning to read — or, conversely, the likelihood that she or he will fail (Adams, 1990; Stanovich, 1986).
http://www.k-3learningpages.net/web%20phonemic%20awareness.htm
This website includes several articles about phonemic awareness. It also includes other resources, lessons, and activities that can be done to encourage a child’s development in phonemic awareness. One of the activities that I liked showed ways for students to focus on the sounds rather than text. It includes gestures that accompany the different phonemes. Below is a list of phonemes as well as their corresponding gesture.
| Phoneme | Hand gestures (all objects mentioned are imagined, not actual) |
| /A/ | Fonzie's thumbs up |
| /a/ | Rub beside eyes with fists |
| /b/ | Pat chest for heartbeat; beat drum |
| /k/ | Squeeze nutcracker; swing golf club; pull down index finger to click camera |
| /d/ | Knock on door; dribble basketball |
| /E/ | Raise open hands for shriek |
| /e/ | Push elbows back as a rocking chair; open creaky door; cup hand behind ear |
| /f/ | Claw like angry cat; brush clothing with clothes brush; swirl open hand for electric fan |
| /g/ | Clap hand vertically for croaking frog, raise glass for gulping milk |
| /h/ | Pump arms for panting runner; breathe on cupped hand; nod head like tired dog |
| /I/ | Raise hand in a salute as in "Aye, aye, Captain"; Point thumb toward yourself |
| /i/ | Hold out separated sticky fingers |
| /j/ | Scrub with scrubbrush; file with wood rasp; twirl jump rope |
| /l/ | Raise light saber; lick a lollypop |
| /m/ | Rub tummy (mmm good); zip up lips (can’t talk! MMM!!) |
| /n/ | Drive motorboat |
| /O/ | Nod for "Oh, I see" |
| /o/ | Press thumb for tongue depresser; wipe forehead with back of hand; cover mouth for yawn |
| /p/ | Pop fingers open for popcorn; touch fingers on open hand for water drip; skip stone ; pop soap bubbles |
| /kw/ | Type with two fingers; make a duck with your hands. |
| /r/ | Start a chain saw; clench teeth for growling dog |
| /s/ | Puncture a flat tire; spray hairspray; swirl frying pan for sizzling bacon; undulate hand from side to side for snake; strike down with two fingers for fangs of snake |
| /t/ | Make a pendulum finger for ticking clock; tap watch; listen to watch |
| /U/ | Point like Uncle Sam: "We want you." |
| /u/ | Pretend to punch your stomach; pull chain on foghorn |
| /v/ | Pretend to shave with electric shaver; extend arms for airplane; push vacuum cleaner |
| /w/ | Twirl a lariat; cast a fly rod; move from side to side like washing machine |
| /ks/ or /gz/ | Open a soda can; squeeze a grease gun |
| /y/ | Slap the side of your leg to spur a horse, "Yah." |
| /z/ | Zip up a coat, buzzing bee |
| /OO/ | Raise hands with fingers pointed down like ghost, howling wolf |
| /oo/ | Curl arms to lift weights; pull fists down for chin-up |
| /oi/ | Seal, spring |
| /ou/ | Squeeze upper arm after inoculation |
| /aw/ | Flap wings like crow |
| /ar/ | Shift grinding gears |
| /sh/ | Finger to lips for "Be quiet"; wave hose to water the lawn |
| /hw/ | Blow out candle held in hand |
| /ch/ | Revolve fists alternately for wheels of steam train; steer antique car |
| /th/ or /th/ | Peel tape, wet shoes |
| /ng/ | Strike a gong with two hands; pluck string bass |
| /zh/ | Saw a board, sander |
(http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/gestures.html)
I really like the fact that this resource is sound-intensive and doesn’t rely too heavily on text because this stresses the importance of phonemes and how they make up not only words, but the sounds we hear all around us—from the buzzing of a bee, to blowing out a candle. It also helps students by engaging them in a kinesthetic manner. By allowing them to get up and play a game that involves them acting out sounds, they are more likely to remember the activity and actively explore sounds around them that they can try and reproduce with speech when they’re at home or outside of the classroom, which I find very beneficial.
http://www.k-3learningpages.net/web%20phonemic%20awareness.htm (the original website) does a great job of encompassing resources for teachers, activities for them to do with children, and interactive games for students in the Online Games section. These games work to help students build on their knowledge base of rhyming, consonants, sounds of letters, and sounds through online interaction so children can work at their own pace while not feeling drilled.
-by Karynna Garcia
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001851.shtml
Emints.org is a very handy website for teachers who are interested in teaching phonemics. When you first enter this site, you will see many links with titles, and these links are what the teacher will use to enhance a child’s phonemic abilities. What I like most about this website is that it provides a huge amount of links to games and teaching strategies that a teacher may want to use in the classroom. What I saw most on this website where the strategies and lessons a teacher wound want to use in their class rooms. An example of one of the games this website provides is quite similar to duck duck goose. In this game a child is chosen and another child must rhyme his or her name with a word, such as mike and bike. By using rhyme in a game setting, the child learns to relate the names of their classmates to everyday objects they encounter. Another example of a rhyming name game that this website provides is known as phoneme segregation. In this activity the teacher has each child’s name written on paper, but each letter separated, the teacher than demonstrates to the class how you separate the letters of the name and how each sounds come together. By doing this the child also learn the name of his or her class mates and at the same time is being introduce to phonemes. One can see how these games promote phonemic awareness, but at the same time these games may be very difficult because some children have unique names. But the point of this website is to give teachers ideas and strategies to use in their classrooms to promote phonemic awareness. As a teacher I would use many of the strategies provided by this website, using games that deal with rhymes and using the alphabet to enhance the children’s phonemic skills. Also a handy thing this website provides are work sheets that deal with phonemes and a teacher can use these to pass out for homework, or in class activities.
By-Michael Dang
Monday, March 22, 2010
Unique Strategies and Activities to Help Teachers Teach Children Literacy
The Websites our group has provided will help teachers develop methods and strategies to improve their student’s literacy and learning capabilities. These websites include stories, games, and practice work to help children develop their literacy skills for the future.
1) http://www.meddybemps.com/7.33.html
The Website I have chose focuses primarily on helping children in preschool and children up to the age of 8. This website is great for helping children hone their literacy skills by providing a large amount of games that specialize in different aspects of literacy. For example this website provides games in the fields of “writing and reading”, “observation and discussion”, and “language skills.” Though I have only listed three sections that offer games to help children increase their literacy skills, there are many more. What makes this website great is that it provides levels for each game, for example a 4 year old child can do the same game as an 8 year old child, but the content will be slightly different. I really like the structure of this website, it keeps the child thinking differently by offering a wide variety of games to chose from, a child can work on his reading by doing the “riddle” sections or if the child would like to work on their writing, they can just play the “writing and reading” games. Also if games like that don’t appeal to the child they can play puzzles.
This websites looks like if it were to be used by a teacher they could only assign these activities during school. It would not be a good idea to use this website for homework assignments because there is no way to check the child work. When dealing with multiliteracy classrooms, this website is useful to a point. This website offers a “language skills” section where they offer stories that can be translated into 12 different languages. This would help greatly in a multiliteracy classroom because the teacher could tell the child to read it in their 2nd language first than their 1st language to grasp the full meaning of the story. The “language skills” section offers a wide variety of stories and this would be very helpful in multiliteracy classrooms. The best way to use this website would be a “classroom fieldtrip” to the computer lab. Most of the learning that will be taking place will be on the computer and alone without the help of others. Scaffolding will still be possible, the teacher should walk around and make sure the child is doing what he or she is supposed to, but there is room for the child to wonder about and just randomly click during the games and end up not really learning. The teacher should make sure he or she knows the levels of each child’s literacy, so they may assign the child what game level to work with. Also the teacher should definitely switch up the games in order to keep the child’s mind thinking and creating new ideas.
By: Michael Dang
2) http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/index.shtml
I think this is a great website to improve children’s literacy, as well as build confidence, as the activities seem easy enough that they could do them on their own for the most part, with a little guidance on the instructions. It uses a bunch of bright and pastel, fun colors on the homepage, which are more appealing and inviting.
What stood out to me right away was the fact that there are games and activities for all different levels, whether you have a child who is just starting to build their literacy skills, or whether you have one who is a little more advanced. I think this would help a whole lot in a class with both L1 and L2 learners, as there is something for everyone. For example, on the left includes different links of different categories that are available to children. These include, but are not limited to, CVC Words, High Frequency Words, Consonant Clusters, and so on. Clicking on CVC Words, shows a couple different activities, including a “Magic Pencil,” in which you can watch the pencil write a word, and then write it yourself. Another is a little more advanced and you try to make different words with the limited letters they give you, proving to be a little more of a challenge. Another thing I like is that all of this is not online. They also have a “Print and Do” section. This could come in handy, as the teachers could print these and send them home with the children. Or, if a family does not have computer access, they could maybe go to a local library and print the sheets out to take them home to do with their children.
This website focuses on many of the difficult aspects to fully grasping literacy. There is a whole section devoted to words that are frequently used, as well as one focusing on long vowel sounds, such as “coat” and “hide.” Another cool aspect is the gallery of “Silly Sentences” where children and parents can actually submit sentences of their own that they have made up. This could give children a sense of accomplishment as they can build on their skills, and then prove what they have learned later.
I discussed all of the strengths above, so now for a couple weaknesses. There could be more pictures, especially on the home page, to make it seem like a more fun website. I think a more exciting layout would definitely spice it up. Also, once the students have done the exercises, there’s not really any more to do, so maybe an update every once in a while with new, exciting ideas would be a good idea! And finally, some software is necessary, for example, a RealPlayer for the Magic Pencil, which might not be compatible with all computers.
Overall, any kind of practice is good practice when learning and developing literacy skills. But, I think that this website has a fun and cool way of doing things!
“Evaluated by Kayla Acosta”
3) http://www.tickettoread.com
The aforementioned website is a wonderful tool for children to use to increase their vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and increase their overall level of literacy. Although the website is not free, it can be a very effective if purchased through the school or the district.
This website is individualized so that each student has his or her own account. Each user has a home page called a club house. The club house is a place that they can decorate and customize. They may purchase decorative items and other trinkets with tickets they earn. Users earn tickets by reading short passages that range from a paragraph to a page. T.J. Ticket is an animated character who reads all of the instructions aloud and gives clues to the user as he or she navigates the website. He’s TicketToRead’s equivalent of Microsoft Word’s Paperclip. T.J. Ticket shows up after each segment of the lesson to further instruct students.
This website is really effective because it measures the student’s progress by asking comprehension questions, setting a goal for the words read per minute, tracking the student’s words read per minute, and tickets. For every passage the student reads, they get 100 tickets. The website tracks the amount of time the student uses to finish the passage and records it. If the student reads too quickly, the When they read the story aloud into a microphone, they get 50 additional tickets. At the end of each short passage, there is a series of 6 comprehension questions. The questions have an audio button for students who can’t comprehend what the question is asking by reading it. This is especially helpful for second language learnersbecause it reinforces their comprehension with the audio aid. For each question answered correctly, 10 tickets are earned. In order to help readers stay on track, the screen highlights the current line when the student mouses over it.
For students who have trouble with reading and are not reading at the “Target” speed, T.J. Ticket offers a few words of encouragement and asks the reader to follow along as the narrator reads the story to the student. Then, there are flashcards that appear with the three vocabulary words in the passage. On these interactive flashcards, the word is read aloud, a picture of the word is shown, and the definition is read aloud. After a few moments, the narrator uses a sentence with the word, making the word more meaningful to the student. The student is then asked to read the passage along with the narrator which helps the student with fluency, inflection, and tone.
If implemented in a school-wide setting, it would be a great incentive system for children to read. Teachers can keep a list of how many tickets their students have and use that as an incentive for a school wide store full of goods like pencils, school supplies, small toys, and bigger prizes that can be won if students save enough tickets.
By: Karynna Garcia
4) http://www.eduplace.com/kids/
The Austin School District has just adopted Houghton Mifflin as their primary textbook source. This website would be extremely beneficial for students (especially AISD students) because it is a great way for the students to have access to a fun way of learning on the web and it is in sync with what they are reading and learning in school. This website is very interactive and the learning aspect is easily disguised because it is entertaining. The student can choose between many different school subjects, among them spelling and language arts. There are levels that pertain to grades so the activities are appropriate. It’s important, in this era, for children to learn how to access the web because there is so much information they can gain through it. These games are kid friendly and provide an excellent source of information because it comes from the textbook creators.
Students could be required to master certain levels and games at home or even at school and print out their scores. This is a way to check their understanding but also give them a sense of accomplishment. The website has a wide spectrum of learning techniques for all different types of learners. This is especially helpful for visual learners (like me!) Using this website is helpful because students can go at their own pace and bilingual students can find games and activities according to their level and knowledge of English.
I love the idea of this website because it parallels to what is being taught in schools that carry Houghton Mifflin books.
By: Kate Hoffner
Activities for Emergent Writers
The following resources can be used by parents, teachers, or students as they begin teaching writing, or learning how to write. Through these resources we hope your child can become an enthusiastic and successful writer!
1.
2.
http://www.bankstreet.edu/literacyguide/write.html
This article discusses a variety of writing activities to do with children who are learning to write. Also, different teaching methods are discussed that should be used when evaluating the writing of the learner. Writing activities for emergent writers can be modified for children at any age and writing level. According to the article, writing activities should be “enjoyable”, a “way to express thoughts and feelings”, and a “way to communicate with others” (Writing Activities).
The activities given are for children who already know how to write words and a few of these activities were modified for children who do not know how to write words. For example, for more advanced students, inviting the student to draw a picture and then write about it will help them engage in writing, but also will allow them to use their imagination. A limitation to this activity is that students who are not comfortable with writing may spend all their time drawing the picture; setting a time limit may encourage the student to equally divide his/her time between drawing and writing the story. A good way to modify this activity for a beginning writer would be to have them draw a picture, but instead of writing a whole story about it, allow them to write one or two letters that may represent the picture. If the picture is of a dog, the student may write the letter “d” under the picture to represent the word dog. This is just one example of the many great activities provided in this resource. The activities are great references for all teachers because it provides activities for most ages and writing levels.
Although the article did give modifications to some of the activities, they were only to make the activity easier. Ideas to make the activities more challenging for advanced writers would have been helpful in this article. All of the activities given would be great for in class or for homework assignments. They are not too challenging and may be completed in a reasonable amount of time. The activities would also be expectable for multiliteracy classrooms because they allow the individual to use their imagination. Most of the students should be able to participate in each activity no matter how developed their language skills are, but the performance of the students may vary on different levels. This article provides a lot of helpful hints and strategies to keep children motivated while learning to write. When teachers show interest in their student’s work instead of only correcting their errors, this encourages the writer to continue writing and learn from their mistakes over time. The strategies listed in the article illustrate great teaching methods to use with emergent writers in all levels of writing. Overall this article is a great resource for teachers to use who need activities and advice for teaching emergent writers.
“Guide to Literacy for Volunteers and Tutors: Writing Activities.” Bank Street College. August 2001. Web. 22 March 2010.
The website LessonSense.com is a fantastic tool for parents and teachers to use as they help teach their children and students learn how to read and write. Lesson Sense, explains the importance of reading and writing and provides fun and easy ways to teach children how to read and write. Through free and easy to follow lessons provided by Lesson Sense, teaching your child or student to read and write can be fun and enjoyable. By providing lesson ideas and materials on a daily basis, Lesson Sense is a one-stop site that any teach or parent can use. With the planning already completed, all a parent or teacher needs to do is focus on teaching their children or students which is one of the most important aspects of learning. Lesson Sense also provides a list of sites for lesson planning for ELL students.
One great aspect of Lesson Sense is that it explains situations in which emergent literacy is learned and how it can be aided through parents and teachers. This way parents and teachers understand the importance of teaching reading and writing as well as ways to teach them. Lesson Sense focuses on the relationship between reading and writing, and how both are critical for becoming both avid readers and writers. They do this through specifically formed lessons such as preparing flash cards with pictures and words. For example, a teacher can show a flash card with a picture on it, and ask the students to write the word of the picture they see. This way they are relating meaning to their writing. Lesson Sense provides these types of activities and flashcards.
Within the Lesson Sense website, you can choose lessons that are based around certain themes. For example, if your students or children are learning about animals, you can click on the theme tab and scroll down to the “animals” tab and up pops a ton of worksheets and lesson ideas for reading and writing about animals! What a great tool to use for incorporating content with reading and writing. There is also a fun and educational game section within Lesson Sense. You can choose a game from the list provided, download the necessary documents and you are ready to go.
Although Lesson Sense is a great tool for lesson planning, it does not provide specific lessons for very early writing. For example, activities for children who are just beginning to write can be difficult to come up with and it would be beneficial if Lesson Sense would add them to their website. Activities such as having children write their name and the names of their friends on a poster board, or writing the names of their family members on paper with pictures of their family.
Overall, Lesson Sense is a great and easy tool parents and teachers can use at home or in the classroom. Full lesson plans are just a click away!
By connecting writing to reading, this resource helps learners to recognize the inter-relationship between the two modes of literacy, which are frequently taught in isolation. Therefore, the classroom teacher could have students read a selection from the book series and then use this Internet site to facilitate and expand the construction of writing skills. However, because the lessons are structured around specific readings, one limitation of this web resource is that a teacher may not be able to use the page, if he or she has the class read an alternative piece of literature. In addition, the learner’s practice of reading and then answering online activity questions implies that the student may be acting as the exclusive builder of their own knowledge. Therefore, it is necessary that the classroom teacher utilize the “Readers and Writers club” to not only promote independent work but also guided student practice along with social collaboration and exploration.
Evaluated by Kathleen Armitage
Have fun writing!!!
Teaching Methods
www.bookpop.com
The book-pop website is a great source for children to learn how to read, learn letters, animals, sounds, exploring, etc. The book pop website can be used in the classroom and in the home environment. This website is great for children to learn literacy. The children will have fun while learning to read. This website has different sections like music pop, art pop, story pop, mail pop, and book pop. The children can click on each section that will help them with their listening and reading skills. The sections will help them with their literacy skills. In the music pop section, they can listen to music while reading along to the words. In the art pop section, they can color a coloring sheet and explain what is happening in the picture. In the mail pop section, the children can write an email to the author and creator of this website. This action encourages children to write, print, and read. In the book pop, they can explore and read the story that interests them. In the story pop, children can listen to a narrator read to them while they read along. The book-pop website offers a game site that children can learn letters, animals, sounds that help them with their literacy while having fun. In classrooms, children will have an area with a computer for literacy games. They can go online and explore this book-pop website to learn about literacy and be able to read. For example, an individual child on Friday?s can go to the computer to explore the area of the music pop area. Each Friday a child can do a different section within this website. The teacher can help the child if they have questions or concerns. Each child can write an email to the author or creator of the website. This can promote writing and reading skills. In home, parents can help children explore the website if they have access to a computer. Parents can tell the children to go on the website and read a story each night before bed. Overall, the book-pop website is a great source for children to learn literacy. It is useful because they can have fun while learning to read, write, listen, comprehend, and explore.
By: Lysandra Garcia
http://www.readinglesson.com/article1.htm
The reading lesson website is a fantastic resource for teachers and parents to teach their children to read. The site is easy to navigate and offers many different methods and activities to promote strong literacy development. The site offers tips to help parents and teachers to teach their children to read. Some tips included are simple ideas such as not worrying yourself with their grammar initially or teaching lower case letters first. The site also offers a Q & A section to answer any questions that may concern the parent or teacher. The website also offers a message board hosted by Dr. Michael Levin where you can post your ideas or ask questions concerning language development. Another fantastic option the site offers are the games and activities you and your children can do. They have online movies, downloadable reading lessons, and simple online stories early readers can utilize to enhance their reading abilities. The site even offers articles about reading disabilities just in case your children are having a difficult time learning how to read. And last, but not least, there is a link that is geared for teachers and one that is geared for parents so the adult supervising the reading lesson can best teach their children to learn to read. Overall, this site offers everything a teacher or parent could ever want to use when teaching young people to read. The site offers tips, answers to your questions, games, lessons, and movies to promote a better educational environment for young children to acquire strong reading skills.
By: James W. Jarvis
The book-pop website is a great source for children to learn how to read, learn letters, animals, sounds, exploring, etc. The book pop website can be used in the classroom and in the home environment. This website is great for children to learn literacy. The children will have fun while learning to read. This website has different sections like music pop, art pop, story pop, mail pop, and book pop. The children can click on each section that will help them with their listening and reading skills. The sections will help them with their literacy skills. In the music pop section, they can listen to music while reading along to the words. In the art pop section, they can color a coloring sheet and explain what is happening in the picture. In the mail pop section, the children can write an email to the author and creator of this website. This action encourages children to write, print, and read. In the book pop, they can explore and read the story that interests them. In the story pop, children can listen to a narrator read to them while they read along. The book-pop website offers a game site that children can learn letters, animals, sounds that help them with their literacy while having fun. In classrooms, children will have an area with a computer for literacy games. They can go online and explore this book-pop website to learn about literacy and be able to read. For example, an individual child on Friday?s can go to the computer to explore the area of the music pop area. Each Friday a child can do a different section within this website. The teacher can help the child if they have questions or concerns. Each child can write an email to the author or creator of the website. This can promote writing and reading skills. In home, parents can help children explore the website if they have access to a computer. Parents can tell the children to go on the website and read a story each night before bed. Overall, the book-pop website is a great source for children to learn literacy. It is useful because they can have fun while learning to read, write, listen, comprehend, and explore.
By: Lysandra Garcia
http://www.readinglesson.com/article1.htm
The reading lesson website is a fantastic resource for teachers and parents to teach their children to read. The site is easy to navigate and offers many different methods and activities to promote strong literacy development. The site offers tips to help parents and teachers to teach their children to read. Some tips included are simple ideas such as not worrying yourself with their grammar initially or teaching lower case letters first. The site also offers a Q & A section to answer any questions that may concern the parent or teacher. The website also offers a message board hosted by Dr. Michael Levin where you can post your ideas or ask questions concerning language development. Another fantastic option the site offers are the games and activities you and your children can do. They have online movies, downloadable reading lessons, and simple online stories early readers can utilize to enhance their reading abilities. The site even offers articles about reading disabilities just in case your children are having a difficult time learning how to read. And last, but not least, there is a link that is geared for teachers and one that is geared for parents so the adult supervising the reading lesson can best teach their children to learn to read. Overall, this site offers everything a teacher or parent could ever want to use when teaching young people to read. The site offers tips, answers to your questions, games, lessons, and movies to promote a better educational environment for young children to acquire strong reading skills.
By: James W. Jarvis
Sunday, March 21, 2010
How students develop reading skills
http://pbskids.org/lions/games/
Between the Lions is a great website for children 3 and up because not only does it read the book to you but the children can follow along to try and sound out the words as they are said. There are three categories for the children to explore which are the following: Games, Stories, and Video Clips. These different areas give children a different way of learning. By watching the words light up while the reader reads the words the child can relate and comprehend how to read words. Also, with the games they aren't just allowing children to play any games but rhyming games so it can help the children understand rhyming and also can help with the similarities in the sounds to spell words in the future. It allows the children to variety on how they want to learn and what is easiest for them. Video clips can include fictional characters but also real people who read them stories. The website contains a lot of authors who read their own books and say their intake on the stories they are telling. The website attracts children which is necessary for them to learn. They need to be interested in what they are learning and how they are learning it and between the lions gives variety for different type of children. Last, It can be used with the parents or for the parents so they learn how they can teach their children or how they can be involved with their children's learning ability.
By: Courtney Kagan
http://www.colorincolorado.org/
The purpose of “Colorín Colorado” is to provide information, strategies, and activities for teachers of English Language Learners. The variety of activities provided help benefit students of all ages and levels of literacy development. The sidebar of this website includes tabs for both educators and for families with ideas and helpful approaches for students to linguistically develop their English. The Educators’ Section can be adapted by teachers in various teaching situations including ESL teachers and general education teachers with ELLs in their classroom. The “For Educators” tab includes links that explain the importance of reaching out to Hispanic Students and families, the ELL Resources necessary for each grade level, the assessment and placement processes teachers must be aware of, as well as other helpful tools and ideas that students may benefit from.The Families’ Section provides parents with an idea of how they can help their child to succeed at school. This tab includes links such as tips that are essential to a child’s bilingual development, informational articles and resources, as well as an entire page dedicated to the requirement for strong Parent-Educator partnerships. In addition to sections specifically for teachers and parents, this site literally offers information on “Topics A-Z” that address a wide variety ideas that can impact students’ literacy development.Colorín Colorado more specifically focuses on the development of Hispanic students and their families considering the vast majority of ELLs in the United States today are Spanish-speaking. However, the strategies the website provides are applicable to students from all bilingual backgrounds.
By: Melissa Berger
http://www.funbrain.com/index.html
This website is great for children in the beginning stages of literacy development. The child and parent can pick the child's reading level at the bottom of the page, and then click on the section labeled, “Reading,” where there are popular comic books for the child to read aloud to the parent. The website is for children from grades K to 8, so the reading is encouraged at all stages for early elementary to secondary education. There is also Madlib activities for children K to 2, where the child must fill in the correct word depending on whether it is an adjective, noun, or verb, and sometimes it depends on what the letter begins with; for example, on the madlibs for the Kindergarten section it says, “'H' is for Henry's Hotdog Hut,” and then it tells the child to pick or type in an adjective, noun, verb, or plural verb that begins with an “h.” This is a great activity for ESL students in developing the foundations of learning the English language by becoming familiar with the nouns, and also by learning that the “h” makes a “hhhh” sound. ESL students can build their phonological awareness for the English language. These games will help strengthen writing/reading skills and vocab. This website has multiple activities to encourage students to read. Web books, word games, grammar and spelling activities, There are also a great amount of other reading tools and writing tools that this website has made fun to encourage the kids to keep practicing their reading and writing skills.
By: Morgan Smith
http://www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet.htm
This website has great activities for students, especially ELL students. Some of the activities include writing a poem inspired by a painting. Printing out a story and illustrating the pictures to go along with them. This encourages students reading development because they have to be able to read the story to know what to draw in their illustrations instead of drawing random things. Monthly calendars in English and Spanish for daily reading activities, like reading a Dr. Seuss book to a younger student. The website also has stories that children can read and listen to online, gives books and information about different cultures. The website has games about languages where you match English words to the words in other languages. There is also an author of the month and an interview that children can read about the author. This website gives students a variety of tools to read online, which encourages reading acquisition. It also provides resources like book titles for students to read and ideas for children to get them involved in literacy development of reading and writing.
By: Mary Rice
Between the Lions is a great website for children 3 and up because not only does it read the book to you but the children can follow along to try and sound out the words as they are said. There are three categories for the children to explore which are the following: Games, Stories, and Video Clips. These different areas give children a different way of learning. By watching the words light up while the reader reads the words the child can relate and comprehend how to read words. Also, with the games they aren't just allowing children to play any games but rhyming games so it can help the children understand rhyming and also can help with the similarities in the sounds to spell words in the future. It allows the children to variety on how they want to learn and what is easiest for them. Video clips can include fictional characters but also real people who read them stories. The website contains a lot of authors who read their own books and say their intake on the stories they are telling. The website attracts children which is necessary for them to learn. They need to be interested in what they are learning and how they are learning it and between the lions gives variety for different type of children. Last, It can be used with the parents or for the parents so they learn how they can teach their children or how they can be involved with their children's learning ability.
By: Courtney Kagan
http://www.colorincolorado.org/
The purpose of “Colorín Colorado” is to provide information, strategies, and activities for teachers of English Language Learners. The variety of activities provided help benefit students of all ages and levels of literacy development. The sidebar of this website includes tabs for both educators and for families with ideas and helpful approaches for students to linguistically develop their English. The Educators’ Section can be adapted by teachers in various teaching situations including ESL teachers and general education teachers with ELLs in their classroom. The “For Educators” tab includes links that explain the importance of reaching out to Hispanic Students and families, the ELL Resources necessary for each grade level, the assessment and placement processes teachers must be aware of, as well as other helpful tools and ideas that students may benefit from.The Families’ Section provides parents with an idea of how they can help their child to succeed at school. This tab includes links such as tips that are essential to a child’s bilingual development, informational articles and resources, as well as an entire page dedicated to the requirement for strong Parent-Educator partnerships. In addition to sections specifically for teachers and parents, this site literally offers information on “Topics A-Z” that address a wide variety ideas that can impact students’ literacy development.Colorín Colorado more specifically focuses on the development of Hispanic students and their families considering the vast majority of ELLs in the United States today are Spanish-speaking. However, the strategies the website provides are applicable to students from all bilingual backgrounds.
By: Melissa Berger
http://www.funbrain.com/index.html
This website is great for children in the beginning stages of literacy development. The child and parent can pick the child's reading level at the bottom of the page, and then click on the section labeled, “Reading,” where there are popular comic books for the child to read aloud to the parent. The website is for children from grades K to 8, so the reading is encouraged at all stages for early elementary to secondary education. There is also Madlib activities for children K to 2, where the child must fill in the correct word depending on whether it is an adjective, noun, or verb, and sometimes it depends on what the letter begins with; for example, on the madlibs for the Kindergarten section it says, “'H' is for Henry's Hotdog Hut,” and then it tells the child to pick or type in an adjective, noun, verb, or plural verb that begins with an “h.” This is a great activity for ESL students in developing the foundations of learning the English language by becoming familiar with the nouns, and also by learning that the “h” makes a “hhhh” sound. ESL students can build their phonological awareness for the English language. These games will help strengthen writing/reading skills and vocab. This website has multiple activities to encourage students to read. Web books, word games, grammar and spelling activities, There are also a great amount of other reading tools and writing tools that this website has made fun to encourage the kids to keep practicing their reading and writing skills.
By: Morgan Smith
http://www.rif.org/kids/readingplanet.htm
This website has great activities for students, especially ELL students. Some of the activities include writing a poem inspired by a painting. Printing out a story and illustrating the pictures to go along with them. This encourages students reading development because they have to be able to read the story to know what to draw in their illustrations instead of drawing random things. Monthly calendars in English and Spanish for daily reading activities, like reading a Dr. Seuss book to a younger student. The website also has stories that children can read and listen to online, gives books and information about different cultures. The website has games about languages where you match English words to the words in other languages. There is also an author of the month and an interview that children can read about the author. This website gives students a variety of tools to read online, which encourages reading acquisition. It also provides resources like book titles for students to read and ideas for children to get them involved in literacy development of reading and writing.
By: Mary Rice
Books to Assist with Reading and Second Language Acquisition
All of the following resources have books that assist children with reading and second language acquisition. Each website has a variety of books that can either be purchased to read aloud to children, or provide guided reading to children, by highlighting the words as the book is read out loud. The books are also illustrated so that children can understand the gist of the book through pictures regardless of their reading ability. Some of these websites have books read out loud in different languages as well. All of these resources can be used at home or in the classroom, and are entertaining for children as well as adults.
RIF Leading to
The acronym
The first link is for babies and toddlers (ages 0-2 years). The children can choose from “Stories,” “Nursery Rhymes,” “Lullabies,” or “Games & Finger Plays.” The “Story” section has several different books that are illustrated and read out-loud. As each word is read, it is highlighted. This helps the children recognize the words as they are spoken and written. The “Nursery Rhymes” section has several different nursery rhymes that are read aloud. Although the words aren’t highlighted as they are read, they are printed on the screen so that children can see what the words look like. The “Lullabies” section has a variety of children’s lullabies that are sung in either English or Spanish (or both). The “Games” section has several different matching games, a game where children can play instruments, and a game where children can hear animal sounds. Finally, the “Finger Plays” section is an area where adults are acting out different songs and rhymes such as “I’m a Little Teapot,” “Pat-a-Cake,” “Five Little Monkeys,” and many more.
The second link is for preschoolers (ages 3-5 years). The children can choose to either “Read,” “Sing,” “Play,” “Doodle,” “Explore,” or “Meet Riffy & Rita.” The “Read” section is very similar to the babies and toddlers stories; however, the stories are more advanced. The words are highlighted and read out loud as the child reads along. The “Sing” section has a variety of songs and is really entertaining because the songs are illustrated and animated. The words are also highlighted as they are sung. The “Play” section has a lot of different games and activities for the children. Some are the same as the games for babies and toddlers, but there are some that are more interactive such as “Supermarket Spree,” a game in which the preschooler can fill their cart with different groceries. The “Doodle” section has a coloring book, where children can color online, a scribble pad, where children can draw online, and printouts so that pictures can be printed and colored on paper. The “Explore” section has videos and facts about different kinds of animals such as elephants, frogs, blowfish, and several others. “Meet Riffy & Rita” is basically a playhouse for preschoolers to meet the characters associated with “Leading to
One strength of this resource is that it is very user-friendly; children should be able to do the activities and read the books on their own or with minimal assistance at a very young age. As you move your mouse over each link, a child’s voice tells you what the link says. This is helpful for children who can’t read the links yet. It is also entertaining and interactive. Children should find the activities enjoyable, which will encourage them to read and enjoy reading at a very young age. Another benefit is that the website can be accessed in both English and Spanish. This is predominantly useful for children whose first language is Spanish. Although it does not provide books in any other languages, it is also useful for helping children that are struggling with English because it shows spoken and written English, as well as illustrations that assist with understanding. On the Spanish site, the links are said and written in both Spanish and English. This is really beneficial for children’s second language acquisition. All of the resources on the Spanish site are culturally relevant, and vary from the ones provided on the English site.
Although this resource is not geared towards school-age children, it is wonderful for parents to use at home, or for can be used in day-cares or preschools. As a preschool teacher, I would probably use this website for in-class readings and activities. If I had the materials available I would project a story for the children to listen to and read along with. We would listen and read along in both English and Spanish. I would also have them do some of the activities and games on their own and allow them to choose what activities or games interested them. We could also listen to the songs in both English and Spanish and learn to sing along. Furthermore, there are printouts available, such as printable coloring pages with words and illustrations, which I would have the children color in class. It would also be useful to inform parents of the website so that they could take advantage of this resource as well.
Leading to
(Evaluated by Clare Cryar)
Bilingual Books for Kids Inc.: http://www.bilingualbooks.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=0
Bilingual Books for Kids Inc. is a great website for bilingual readers at different levels. This site offers lists of bilingual books and activities for all ages. The focus of this site is to provide many titles in these lists that you can purchase straight from the web page. This is a pro and con of the website.
On the main page is an index of categories, each with their own description. These categories provide for a simple and easy way to navigate through the website. Each category is a button you can click on, which takes you to another page that has detailed lists. These details include title of the book or activity, a summary, a picture, number of pages and the price. You can buy these products straight from the website or you can look for them in your local library, if you don’t want to buy them. Parents will love this site because they won’t have to do a ton of research to find good quality educational books and activities for their children.
The con of this website is the lack of interactive material for kids. This site was not really designed for that, however it can be used in classes with L1 and L2 students. Students can look up bilingual books to read and even further if they are interested in a certain topic, the sites categories may provide books of specific interests. There are books for students learning Spanish or English. Also the library can use this site to order books for bilingual students. It would only be beneficial for students if these books were in the library.
As a teacher, an assignment I could have my students do is to find 3 books from the site that are of interest to them and then choose one to share with the class. The site is easy enough for students to use and everything is packed into one location. Another assignment students could do is to all find a different book in the same category to share with the class. You can teach that topic and then back up the material with books, for example poetry. This site provides books that will help L2 learners with their vocabulary as well as how to relate material from the L1 to the L2 like Universal Grammar believes. Besides vocabulary, students can learn about an array of things such as colors for younger students and relationships for the older students.
I think this website is a gold mine. It has so many books that it would take a while to read them all and the website isn’t limited to just one type of student or one interest. It even has a place at the bottom where you can select a price range if you are interested in purchasing any of their products. Some of the highlights of the site are the categories for infants, ABC’s, 123’s & Colors, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, games, poetry, and books for adults. Teachers, Parents, and students will enjoy using this website to explore and find bilingual books just to their liking.
(Evaluated by Marissa Rosenstein)
TumbleBooks: http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/home_tumblebooks.asp
Is a great Website for children who are learning how to read or already know how to read but are trying to further their reading level. On this Website children can choose from thousands and thousands of books for the computer to read to them. This is great for the beginning learner because as they read along they can see the word and also hear how the word is pronounced. The site also has Spanish books available for English language learners as well. This would be great way for the children to also get to know their neighborhood library because this program will give the children access not only at school but at libraries in their area. When I tried to access this site and review it I couldn’t full access everything in the site. The site didn’t allow me to see the books but I could hear the audio. This could become a problem if the site has a continous technical problem that I encountered, it won’t allow the children to get the full effect and advantages of the site. Now if the children are already reading the book on their own and have hard copy, it won’t that much of an issue. As for the classroom, for the students who need extra help with their reading and the teacher cannot get to every student at once. The teacher can send certain children to the computers to listen to the book while she works with another student and they switch them. So that way the child is getting that reinforcement of pronouncing the correct words. The child can sound out the words they do not know, say what they think the word is and then listen to how its being pronounced. However, teachers should not use this as a substitution for one on one with the teacher. The student could just sit over in front of the computer listens to the book and not make an effort to try to actually read it for themselves. By continuing the one on one time with the teacher, the teacher can evaluate the progress of the child.
(Evaluated by Candyce Pace)
Reading Rockets is a great website for children that are struggling to read in any language, need to further their skills, or for people who are trying to teach children to read. It offers resources for teachers, children, parents, librarians, and people of other professions. It is also offered in Spanish for non-English speakers. There are strategies offered for teaching children, thousands of articles posted about how to help with second language acquisition, blogs about helping children learn to read, and a section with long lists of great books for children learning to read. This website is great because it reaches out for children of all skill levels, many different languages, and who struggle in many different areas of literacy.
If you go to the Home page, there are categories you can search on the side of the page. Under the Children’s Books section of the website, there are long lists of books that can help children read. If you go to Books by Themes, it will give you lists of books that will be very helpful for language learners. They have audio books, digital books, picture books, and many more categories. One of the downfalls is that you cannot buy all of the books through this website. You can find them in libraries, or specially order some of them. All of the books have Descriptions under them, or will send you to another website that gives you more of a variety. There is a space for people to comment under the description of the book to give feedback on it. This can be very helpful for people trying to find useful books. The website is easy to navigate and has many options for children to find helpful books; however there is not a specific category for second language learners, so you may have to search more.
There is one thing offered called the Family Literacy Bag which includes a fiction and non- fiction book, a hands-on craft project, an imagination activity, a get real activity, and a bookmark. This packet is offered in English or in Spanish. I think this would be great thing for children to use at home or in the classroom. In the classroom I could have the children search for books which might be of interest to them. However, I think this website is more beneficial for teachers or parents to pick books that would benefit the children. Therefore, I could use this resource to structure my class, find good strategies, and pick books that will help children in all areas. It tells me what books are good for what part of learning, and activities that I can incorporate into the lesson to help further the children’s language acquisition. This site does an amazing job at giving books, strategies, and games for teaching children. I will definitely use this site when I become a teacher.
(Evaluated by Micah Morgan)
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