A Quick Guide to Reading Components

This is a repost of my first Teaching Tuesday post from last summer. Mainly because I have the nastiest cold and I can't think straight. But also because I'm much better at pinnable images now. 

The Basic Components of Reading

Exploritude. 

Is totally not a real word. But were you able to pronounce it? That's phonics.

High-dray-shun.

Also not a real word, but if you put the sounds together quickly it sounds like a real word. That's phonemic awareness.

Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers. 

If you read that quickly three times, that's fluency. Also any time you read a word without having to sound it out phonetically.

I was born in a summer month that has 31 days and starts with "J". The sixteenth of that month is exactly two weeks after my birthday. 

If you now know when my birthday is, that's comprehension. Also, logic. They kind of go together.

Loquacious. Hydroponics. 

Those are cool vocabulary words that don't come up in everyday conversation. But the bigger your speaking vocabulary the easier reading will be.

The Dirty Truth

If your kid is struggling with and/or dislikes reading,  s/he is struggling with one or more of these components. If your kid's teacher can't tell you which one(s) s/he is struggling with and how you can help, then there's a problem with the teacher. Any teacher who can't articulate why a student is struggling with reading shouldn't be teaching reading.

Friday I'm in Love: Literacy Activities

My favorite subject when I was a teacher was reading. There was nothing more fun to me than teaching kids to read and reading aloud to them. I remember fixing one awful, awful day (there'd been vomiting, two fistfights and I was fighting off the flu) by chucking out my lesson plans and spending an hour reading books to my class. Hell, when I have a bad day, a good book is the first thing I want (at least now that I no longer guzzle gin and tonics).

The first time I read to Ironflower, I teared up, I was so happy to finally be reading to my little girl. She was three days old. I think I started reading to the boys even before I got home from the hospital. And even though she and Lovebug now can and do read extremely well on their own, I still read to them most nights. I feel like most parents know they should read to their kids every night, but that doesn't have to be the only way parents can help their kids with literacy.

• Have rich conversations. Even if your little one can't respond verbally yet, s/he is paying attention to what you say. So narrate your day. Use big words. Encourage toddlers and preschoolers to ask what new words mean. 
• Share the alphabet. I'm not a big fan of flashcards for young children (especially babies), but that doesn't mean I don't think they should be introduced to the alphabet. Sing the ABC song, point out letters on signs, read them alphabet books and so on. 
• Rhyme. Rhyming is one part of phonemic awareness, a key component of reading skill. When repeating directions, try rhyming some of the words ("Give me a hug, bug!"). With preschoolers, play "I Spy", but instead of using colors, say, "I spy with my little eye something that rhymes with ____". 
• Label pictures. When your little one proudly points to his scribbles and announces that it's actually a picture of your mother-in-law, carefully write "Grandma" on the page. As your kiddo grows, so will his descriptions. Eventually you'll be writing down entire stories for him! 
• Play with the alphabet. Magnetic letters, alphabet puzzles and board books may not be much fun to step on (though they're all better than Legos, trust me), but they are great for familiarizing kids with the alphabet. 
• Encourage imaginative play. Play pretend with your kiddo - let her be the server, or the doctor, or the super hero princess and join in her story. Alphabet apps and web sites can be great for preschoolers and up (Starfall.com is an excellent free site), but imaginative play will do more for her than any app. 

Resources that back up what I'm saying, but that I did not actually cite in my post because all this information lives in my head (told you I'm obsessed with reading):

Phonemic Awareness in Young Children

The Essentials of Early Literacy Instruction

Teaching Tuesday: Vocabulicious

The scholarly version of my point can be found in this long-ass article. 

So, one large predictor of reading success - which is a predictor of life success - is vocabulary. When I was teaching, I remember sitting through some inservice where we learned that the average middle class child will hear 32 MILLION more words than the average low income child by the time the kids are four. 

FOUR. 

Talk about starting out ten steps behind. Some teachers I knew took this to mean that they should only use simple words with their low income students. Some teachers I knew took this to mean that they should have their students copy words out of the dictionary all the time. 

Neither group made up much of their word deficit. Which killed their reading comprehension. Which killed their learning by about fifth grade. 

What breaks my heart more than anything in all this is that kids like to learn new words. The first year I taught second grade, I had the worst class I ever had. I had some of the most challenging students I've ever known, including a kid who was prone to throwing chairs during math lessons. I felt like I could barely get them under control, let alone teach them anything. Until we read some picture book together - possibly Graeme Base's Animalia - and one kid asked what a word in the book meant. Now, I always had a policy of encouraging kids to raise their hands when they heard a word they didn't understand - one I continue with my own kids - but the kids in that class generally ignored my policy. The word in question happened to be queue, which is really quite apropos for your average elementary school. So an hour or so later, I told them to queue up instead of line up. 

Their faces literally lit up when they realized they recognized an unfamiliar word. From then on, I read them books with the most challenging vocabulary I could find and I made a point of using multi-syllabic words as much as possible. They started actually listening when I was speaking; they became fascinated with using "big words". 

Consequently, I actually started doing some research how to teach vocabulary and make up word deficits. Now, as a parent, I don't do the logical, explicit instruction I eventually started doing as a  teacher. But I do use "big words" with my kids and encourage them to always ask what words mean. When they were little, I narrated what we were doing all the time and used the proper terminology for everything. And I can't tell you how many people have been impressed with their vocabularies. From teachers to random strangers at the grocery store to Lovebug's former speech therapist. 

Having a good vocabulary isn't just about doing well on the SATs, or improving reading comprehension, though of course it certainly helps those things. But it can also help with with decoding - it's a lot easier to sound out a word if you've actually heard it before. It can help kids understand the world around them, especially in relation to nature and geography. It can help kids learn how to classify and categorize and sort more easily. It can help kids write more clearly. It can help kids communicate more effectively. It can help kids feel smart and confident. 

So how do you provide your kids with a good vocabulary? 

• Read aloud from lots of different types of literature - fiction, poetry, narrative non-fiction, memoir, non-fiction, magazines and newspapers. 
• Encourage them to ask what words mean. When I'm reading aloud to them, they know they can lay a hand on my arm to signal that they have a question. More often than not, the question is about the meaning of a new word. 
• Use proper terminology. If your toddler is into trains, don't just talk about the choo-choo. Point out the engine, point out the cars. Eventually your toddler will be able to bore relatives with descriptions of steam engines. 
• Remember when I talked about how I have to repeat directions all the time? And I throw rhymes in, mostly to practice rhymes but also to distract myself from discipline failures? Well, once kids get the rhyme thing figured out, you can try using new vocabulary words each time you repeat directions. Start with, "Pick up your clothes!" and move onto, "Gather your apparel!" and "Collect your attire!" 
• If you feel unhappy about your own vocabulary, grab a word-a-day calendar or just start going through a dictionary together. Make it a family activity to learn a new word each day, or see how many times each family member can use the new word in a day. 

What are your thoughts? Do you think a larger vocabulary is helpful? What do you do to help your kids? 

 -

Teaching Tuesday: How to Teach Phonics

Chibesh. Soolamundo. Unamtilating.

Did you "read" those words? Actually, you couldn't possibly have read them - I made them up. What you did was decode them - you used your knowledge of phonics to say the sounds associated with the letters.

Knowing all the phonics rules won't make your kid a great reader - but she won't be a great reader unless she learns a lot of the phonics rules. Some rules are simple; "b" says /b/ and "t" says /t/. Some rules are not; "oo" can say the sound in "zoo" or the sound in "cook". Even though, logically, it should say long /o/, as "ee" says long /e/. The more you learn about English, the more you realize it makes no sense.

There are 44 phonemes (smallest sounds of language), but there are only 26 graphemes (smallest units of written language), or letters. So one (huge) part of phonics is teaching which graphemes can make which phonemes, or which letters make which sounds. This is one of those times where flashcards can be very useful, though Lovebug's first grade teacher called them, "soundpacks", which is probably more accurate and definitely more clever than "flashcards". Another way to work on letter/sound association is to let - or even encourage - kids to read the same books over and over. It doesn't have to be those annoying sets of phonics books that you can buy at the book fair (though Goddess knows my kids just loved those Scooby-Do ones I was talked into), but any books with simple, repetitive and rhyming language. Dr. Seuss, for example.

Another part of phonics instruction is using that letter/sound knowledge to decode. It seems simple when your little one is figuring out "cat" or "mom", but when your second grader is tackling the word "instruction", it's a lot more complicated. One thing I like to do is blending*. It trains kids to decode challenging words; I made Ironflower and Lovebug practice it (just a few minutes a couple days a week) even when they figured out the word before we'd started. Basically, using a notebook or a dry erase board, I'd write a word like "instruction". Then I would tell them to look for "chunks" - graphemes, smaller words, long vowels, prefixes, suffixes. We would underline the chunks they found, so "instruction" would look like "instruction". Next we would start blending the sounds together. I'd have them say the first two sounds, "in" and "s", then I'd have then put the sounds together, "ins". We'd continue adding sounds, "inst", "instr", "instru", instruc", "instruction". When I did this with classes and reading groups, I would use words that emphasized whatever they were working on - consonant digraphs (ch, sh, th, wh), long vowels (like ay, or i_e), vowel digraphs (oy, oo), prefixes (in, re) and suffixes (ing, ed). But if you're just supplementing at home I wouldn't worry too much, I would just choose words similar to those your kiddo struggles with when s/he reads aloud to you.

For a far more intellectual discussion of phonics instruction, you should check out Reading Rockets.



*Shamelessly stolen from a reading curriculum I used in the late nineties called "Open Court". It was the total opposite of the methodology I'd been taught in graduate school. But it totally worked. 

Friday I'm in Love: Best Reading Web Sites

When I came up with the title for this post, I was thinking about Reading Rockets. Reading Rockets is

They really do enjoy reading. I swear. 

my favorite go to site for reading information and ideas. There are sections for parents, teachers, principals and librarians. The site covers everything very comprehensively, though sometimes it can be hard to find the specific information you want.

But then I realized that not everyone is an obsessive researcher like I am. Plus, if I only wrote about Reading Rockets, the "Best Reading Web Sites" title becomes inaccurate. It would have to be "Best Reading Web Site" and that just seems lame. Also, it's not the best site if you're looking for games for your kids, visual ideas or book suggestions. So.

Sites for Kids:

Starfall is great for preschoolers and kindergartners.

ClicknKids has really effective phonics and phonemic awareness lessons. It's not free, but you can use it for consecutive kids.

GameGoo, despite its horrible name, has some good early literacy skills games.

I'm not a big fan of online reading games for kids who already read. They should spend their time reading and responding to actual books.


Ideas for Parents:

No Time for Flash Cards has excellent ideas.

The International Reading Association, while geared for professionals, also has great ideas for parents.

What We Do All Day also has fun ideas for parents, with some really cool reading lists.

More great reading lists can be found on Kidlit.


If you're more visual and looking for teaching ideas:

I love this Pinterest Board by a fellow Jennifer.

This board from Scholastic has great resources too.

Check out this woman's literacy site for great teaching ideas. I wish she'd been my literacy coach.

Do you have any reading sites that you think I should check out? Let me know in the comments.

Teaching Tuesday: Read To Your Kid Every Day

You already know you're supposed to read to your kid every day. Reading aloud may be the most important element in future reading success.  And if you don't believe me, here's a college student's explanations, complete with a bibliography of studies. You can look here too. Or you can trust my years teaching in a tough neighborhood; the kids who had someone read to them regularly did better in school, regardless of the other issues in their lives.

It's ideal to start from infancy. But even if your kid is two or six or twelve, reading aloud is still important. And helpful. Turn it into something non-negotiable, like bathing or sitting in a car seat. Here are my (mental) replies to excuses I've heard over the years.

Excuse: We don't have time every night!

Reply:  Then don't try to read an entire book every night. Try a Shel Silverstein poem or two. Do a page a night. Then find another time when you can read a bit more together. If you've got an older kid, make him or her read to the younger one while you make breakfast or dinner.

Excuse: My kid won't sit still while I read!

I was reading when this photo of Lovebug was taken.

Reply: Lovebug probably didn't sit still for an entire book until he was 3 years old. But I kept reading to him anyway, I'd make him sit on my lap for a few minutes and then I'd keep reading while he moved around his room. Now he loves to listen to books as well as to read them himself. Some kids aren't ready - some may never be ready - to sit still. That's okay. They can still hear you. They'll look at the pictures when they're very interested. Keep trying.

Excuse: My kid just doesn't like it when I read to him/her!

Reply: What are you reading? Are you letting your kid pick the book? Try that, even if it means you read the same book with no educational value over and over and over. Also, do you enjoy reading to your kid? Are you enthusiastic? Or can your kid tell you'd really rather be watching The Walking Dead?

Excuse: I don't have money to buy children's books!

Reply: Garage sales and library sales have books for like twenty-five cents a book. If even that's too much, join your local library. Libraries are still free. Ask people with older kids if they have books they could give or lend to your little one. Do people ever buy your child gifts? Ask them to buy books. Do you ever buy your child gifts? Buy some books instead of a toy that will entertain him for 5 minutes.

Excuse: I want my kid to learn English, but I don't read it very well.

Reply: If you read better in Spanish or Russian or Urdu, read in that language. There are still lots of benefits and your kid has a great shot at being totally bilingual. If you don't read well in any language, choose picture books with simple text, or practice reading the book ahead of time. If you've got a kiddo under the age of six, chances are s/he'll want you to read the same book over and over anyway. Here are some books that are engaging, as well as pretty easy to read:





Excuse: Is this really helping my kid? It sure doesn't seem like it.

Reply: Look, if you read the same book to your kid every night, in a monotone, and never discuss what happened in the story or whether they liked it, your kid will still learn language patterns and the concepts of print, like reading left to right and front to back. Would it be more helpful if you tried different books, discussed what new words meant, used expression and talked about the book afterwards? Of course. But reading aloud is a cumulative thing, it's not going to be as obvious that your child has learned something from one day to the next.

Teaching Tuesday: Rhyming, Yo

Before I had kids, I used to talk to my mom about my students, as they were the closest thing I had to kids. Once when I was talking about my struggling reader group and I explained that one poor fifth grader was having such a rough time because he had no phonological awareness skills.

"What are phonological awareness skills?" asked my editor/writer/reading at 4 years old mother.

Which was funny because not only because of my own mother's reading skills, but because she and my dad had read me nursery rhymes and Dr. Seuss and had entertained me with "The Rhyming Game" (like I Spy, but with rhyming words as clues) throughout my early childhood. Basically, they were the ideal phonological awareness parents, even though they never called it that.

Phonological awareness is the understanding of and the ability to manipulate sounds in language, basically. That sentences are made of words, that words are made of syllables, that words can rhyme, that syllables are made of phonemes and that phonemes can be isolated, deleted and substituted. For example, the word "cat" has 3 sounds; /c/ /a/ and /t/. I've just isolated the sounds in "cat". If I delete the first sound, you've got "at". If I substitute the last sound, you could have "cap" or "cad".

Kids who struggle with the sounds of language have a hard time decoding words; if you can't hear that the sounds /p/ /i/ /n/ say "pin", then you're not going to be able to read/sound out/decode the word later on. The easiest way to teach your kid about phonological awareness is to read books that incorporate rhyme and/or play with language. Obviously, Dr. Seuss is the master, but you can try these as well:





As you read these books for the 120th time, start asking your kid to fill in some of the rhyming words in the text. Trust me, once your kids can rhyme the other phonological awareness skills will come along easily (and you can let their teachers do most of the work on those).

But let's say that your child is obsessed with the solar system and wants to read space books every night. This happened to us for about a month when my older kids were in preschool. I was terribly worried that they'd miss out on rhyming and subsequent phonological awareness skills. And that this would make them have trouble reading later on. So I started speaking in rhymes.

Not all the time, I am so not that clever. But every time that I had to repeat directions? I threw in a rhyme. "Please put on your shoes! Please put on your shoes-blues! Shoes-blues!" I tried to use a different rhyme each time, which had the added effect of distracting me from the fact that my kids weren't listening to me. I changed the rhymes all the time and before I knew it, they were joining in.

For some reason, rhymes make it easier to leave the playground. 

They weren't following directions any quicker, though. Which is why I'm not writing about a blog about discipline.


If you'd like to learn more, read what some women with ph.D's have to say.

Teaching Tuesday: A Quick and Dirty Guide to Reading Components

I used to be a teacher. I don't want to go back to teaching, but I do miss it sometimes. Well, what I really miss is being "The Reading Bitch", which is what some of my colleagues used to call me. I think the actual title was reading coordinator, if there was an official title. Basically, it meant that I know a lot about how to teach reading and I'm not afraid to yell about it. 

The Basic Components of Reading

Exploritude. 

Is totally not a real word. But were you able to pronounce it? That's phonics.

High-dray-shun.

Also not a real word, but if you put the sounds together quickly it sounds like a real word. That's phonemic awareness.

Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers. 

If you read that quickly three times, that's fluency. Also any time you read a word without having to sound it out phonetically.

I was born in a summer month that has 31 days and starts with "J". The sixteenth of that month is exactly two weeks after my birthday. 

If you now know when my birthday is, that's comprehension. Also, logic. They kind of go together.

Loquacious. Hydroponics. 

Those are cool vocabulary words that don't come up in everyday conversation. But the bigger your speaking vocabulary the easier reading will be.

The Dirty Truth

If your kid is struggling with and/or dislikes reading,  s/he is struggling with one or more of these components. If your kid's teacher can't tell you which one(s) s/he is struggling with and how you can help, then there's a problem with the teacher. Any teacher who can't articulate why a student is struggling with reading shouldn't be teaching reading.

Totally Going Off the Reservation

Alternative Title: Why They Used to Call Me the Reading Bitch

Alternative Alternative Title: One of the Many Reasons They Used to Call Me the Reading Bitch

This blog is generally about all the ways I fuck up as a parent, or how much I hate something, or television shows I love. I get that. But as most of you know, before I was a blogging mom, I was an elementary school teacher. And while I wasn't the best, I was pretty damn good at teaching reading.

That's the reason my former colleagues used to call me "The Reading Bitch". At least, that's why I like to think they did. There might have been other reasons. Ahem.

Lately I've been writing all these articles for The Bump. Well, for the content corporation that pays me. As of this writing, none of them have actually appeared on The Bump, but they're supposed to at some point in the not-too-distant future. I think. I believe many of them are based on actual questions of Bump readers, which makes me very sad. A lot of these people should not be procreating.

Anyway, one of the more intelligent questions had to do with early literacy skills. I had to answer it the content corporate way to get paid, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. And I remembered that I have a blog where I can say whatever the hell I want. So, even though I don't normally do this, I'm going to go all ex-Reading Bitch on you guys.

Q: How do get your preschooler ready to read?

A. Back away from the flashcards, workbooks and reading curricula. In fact, burn them. Most of them suck. And even if they don't totally suck, your preschooler shouldn't be doing them. It's not developmentally appropriate. Follow these steps instead:

1. Go to the library and get some picture books. Read them to your preschooler every day. Go to back the library and get some more. Repeat until your preschooler is 18 or so.

2. Use big words, and lots of them. Kids who know a lot of words will have an easier time learning to read.

3. Play with language. Make up rhymes. Stretch words out. Say each sound separately and have kids guess the word. Literacy professionals calls this phonological awareness. Or phonemic awareness. Or phonetic awareness. It depends. You don't have to call it anything. And if it freaks you out, pick up a lot of Dr. Seuss at the library.

Sometimes I want to start a blog called, "The Reading Bitch". Thoughts? Aren't there already a million teacher blogs out there?