Beacon Media Supporting Christian schooling worldwide

1. Beacon MediaSupporting Christian schooling worldwide

6. stories Children need to hear 100 stories before they are ready to read.

7. Why stories? • They develop a wide vocabulary through listening to others. • They develop an interest in books. • They develop their powers of imagination. Many people in the community have stories to tell. Involve them!

8. Other ways to develop vocabulary • Play situations, e.g. shops, restaurants, home corner, building together • Play involved experimenting with language, making up scripts, using imagination • Creating together • Puppets • Dramatizing stories • Show and tell

9. Beginning to gain an interest in print • Children will experiment with ‘pretending’ to write. • Provide plenty of writing materials and let them experiment. • Point out signs and place them around the classroom. • Children can be shown that words can be written down and there are spaces in-between, by pointing to words in ‘Big Books’.

10. Parents can help to get children interested in print • Make a photo album and add captions. • Make shopping lists. • Point out signs while shopping. • Never make reading a negative experience.

11. Word shapes • Words have shapes • Children start by identifying shapes around them – circles, triangles, squares • Teachers can help develop this ability by providing jig saw puzzles, toys of different shapes and ‘which is different’ activities.

12. Sounds • Listening and speaking go together. • Encourage children to identify sounds in the environment, near/far sounds; high/low sounds in music • Play listening games • Begin teaching the sounds of the alphabet using pictures first, not alphabet symbols.

13. Phonics or “look and say” • These are like two wings of an aeroplane. • They are equally important. • Visual or auditory learners?

14. Beacon Media Phonics resources • Bible Land Phonics • Progressive Phonics

15. Bible Land Phonics Uses Bible stories and characters to teach the first sounds. Every sound has a catchy rhyme to learn. Dd d is for donkey “Hosanna,” the people sing. The rider is Jesus, Jesus the King.

16. Progressive Phonics • Progresses gradually from simple to complex • Initial sounds • 3-letter words • Digraphs, trigraphs • Word families based on vowel groups

17. Language experience • Make your own classroom books by asking children to draw pictures on a topic of interest, an interesting activity done in class or an excursion. • “Our nature walk”; “Making popcorn” • Children can then think of a sentence to go with their drawing. • Drawings are compiled into a book, big enough to be read at group time.

18. Re-telling stories • e.g. Bible stories; traditional tales; stories that community members have shared • The teacher can help the children sequence the events – what happened first? What happened next? • This simplified version of the story can be written on the board, transferred to individual pages for children to illustrate, then stapled together as a book.

19. Guided reading • Small groups of about 6 children working with the teacher. • The children will all be at a similar reading level. • Other children in the class are working quietly and independently on other activities such as writing, puzzles, drawing. • Each child in the group has a copy of the same text.

20. Format for guided reading • Select a book at the right level for the group. • Look at the front cover and look at the pictures in book. Ask the children to predict what the book might be about. • Allow the children to read individually. • The teacher moves around the group, hearing each child read a few sentences.

21. Phases of reading Level 1 – • Direct match between text and illustrations • One line of text per page plus a picture. • Word count between 0 and 50 words Level 5 – • 1-5 lines of text per page • Direct speech used – “said” and “asked”

22. Phases of reading Levels 6-12 • Sentences may contain more than one idea. • A full range of punctuation used. Level 18 up • The story may be in episodes. • Several ideas in the plot.

23. Running Records • Choose a book that you THINK might be at the child’s level. Make sure that the subject matter is meaningful to the child. • Choose 25, 50 or 100 words from the text and photocopy it. • Teacher sits next to the child in order to view the book. • Teacher marks the text with a tick for each word the child reads correctly, and an underline for each word unknown or incorrect. Symbols are placed above the word to denote the kind of error. • At the end of the passage, the teacher either asks the child to retell the story, or asks some comprehension questions.

24. Types of errors • M = meaning • S = structure • V = visual • Meaning • This would be where the child’s words do not relate to the meaning of the story and its illustrations. • Structure • Example: a child misreads “He walk to the shop” instead of “He walks to the shop”. This is a grammatical error. • Visual • Example: a child misread the word “Dad” for “father”. The word “Dad” doesn’t look like “father”, although it does make sense.

26. How to use the test results • Independent level – 100% accuracy. A good level to use for take-home books. • Instructional level – 95% accuracy with 80% comprehension. Use these books in guided reading sessions. • Frustration level - less than 95% accuracy and 70% or lower in comprehension. This book is too hard for the child.

27. How often to test • More often for younger children • At least of 3 times a term

28. Fluency • Re-reading familiar texts • Echo reading – rhymes or traditional tales with repeated lines. • Listening while reading (audio books, or following the text while the teacher reads). • Practicing a known text for expression. • Class-wide tutoring – students of different levels are paired to help one another • Sight word flashcard games

29. Fluency • Sight word lists for memorization • Reading one-on-one with a reading helper • Following words to songs and rhymes (made by teacher as ‘Big Books’) • Sentence flashcards (made by teacher) • Reading classroom books that you have made. • Cloze procedure – every 7th word deleted.

30. Special assistance for the under-achiever Format for on-on-one sessions: 1. Vocabulary – 5 minutes • Child reads 5 and 10 high frequency words on small individual pieces of paper. • Each time the word is said correctly, the helper places a tick on the back of the paper. • When there are 5 ticks on the back, then word is replaced.

31. 2. Familiar Reading – 5 minutes • The child reads aloud a familiar short story or rhyme at the independent level. • The aim is for fluency and enjoyment.

32. 3. Reading Together – 5 minutes • This is a book at instructional level. • It should be read by child to the assistant but if the child is finding difficulty, then assistant may read with the child. • It is not necessary to read the whole book – just a few pages. Use sticky notes to mark the place.

33. 4. Writing a response – 5 minutes • This is an opportunity for the child to enjoy a story read by an adult. • The story must be short. • Instead of a story you could use a picture for discussion.

34. Thinking hats for writing a response • Red (Emotions) - How did you feel when…? or How do you think X felt when… • Blue (Thinking) - What did you learn from…? • Green (Creativity) - What else could have been done? What would you have done? • White (Information) - What was …? Who was…? How many? Where? • Yellow – good points • Black – bad points • Gold – what would Jesus do?

35. Reading buddies • The whole school can spent half and hour a day working together on reading. • Pair younger children with older children.

36. More Beacon Media resources I can read Bible stories for reading ages 6-8 God is love The Good Shepherd John 10 What is a shepherd? A shepherd looks after sheep. A shepherd loves his sheep very much. He looks to see if they have food and water.

37. Kanga Joe • Eight stories about the fruit of the spirit • Includes audio play and script • for reading ages 9-12

38. On Safari • Nine stories featuring the adventures of two children, as they encounter the wonderful animals of Africa. • These stories teach about the motivational gifts of giving, serving, encouraging, leadership, compassion, teaching and insight.