Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, Johnson & Keier,

1. The Essentials of Word WorkPat JohnsonWhen Vulnerable Readers Thrive2014 Summit: Series TwoVictoria May 20 & 21, 2014patjohnson222@gmail.com Catching Readers Before They Fall: Supporting Readers Who Struggle, Johnson & Keier, One Child at a Time: Making the Most of Your Time with Struggling Readers, Johnson www.stenhouse.com

2. Demonstrate and teach word solving principles with whole group or small group lessons. • Provide opportunity for students toapply the principles – hands on work with words in applicable activities. • Teach for, prompt for, and reinforce problem solving while readers are processing continuous text. When Readers Struggle, p. 242

3. “Remember, word solving is about learning how to connect words in ways that generate more word knowledge. Word learning will be useless unless children can use the information while writing and reading.” Fountas & Pinnell Word Matters, p. 99

4. My top eight list of important things to think about when working with words:

5. Children need to use a balance of their sources of information when solving words on continuous texts.

6. woods forest look book looks took f in d find Sources of Information: Meaning Word Solving Syntactic Visual

7. An ELL child might place a lot of weight on visual analysis. • “Another child who has strong oral language skills … may try to avoid the tedium of the careful analysis of print in reading and attention to detail in writing. And their avoidance behavior requires astute detection.” Marie Clay Literacy Lessons 2, p. 168

8. Also be aware of: • Child who looks up and away rather than trying to solve. • Child who has a “learned confusion” and thinks there are 2 alternatives and that either response will do. You must help him learn what is OK and what is not OK. • Child who did pretty well sounding letter by letter, but never moved onto chunks.

9. It isn’t always about accuracy – sometimes it’s about taking on a part of a word solving strategy or strategic behavior.

10. “Struggling readers tend to appeal rather than work actively at words.” Fountas & Pinnell When Readers Struggle p. 261

11. Adapted from Schulman, Guided Reading in Grades 3-6 Pinnell & Fountas, Guiding Readers & Writers, 3-6 Johnson, One Child at a Time

12. “…the teacher’s job is not delivering knowledge, but arranging for the problem to be manageable, sustaining the child’s problem-solving attempts emphasizing flexibility.” Peter Johnston “Revolutionary Contributions” The Journal of RR, Fall, 2007

13. Students need to be flexible when word solving.

14. “We do not want the brain to specialize in learning one response for each symbol. Why? Because English is not like that. It is more important that the beginning reader adopt a different stance: ‘It might be this, or it could be that.’ ” Marie Clay Literacy Lessons 2, p. 123

15. What would happen if children are inflexible and think that ‘a’ either says short a or long a: am saw again caught stain animal mall anyway hard said bean

16. “…children should be flexible enough to try something else when their first trial is unsuccessful, and that they need a growing repertoire of what the most likely possibilities may be.” Billie Askew Voices on Word Matters, p. 149

17. Teachers need to be thinking about the concepts of how words work

18. 14 Principles of how words work: 1. Initial letters can be changed. go/so look/book make/take 2. Final letters can be changed. cat/can bed/bet hot/hop beat/bean 3. Letters can be added to the ends of words. look/looks play/playing stay/stayed the/them teach/teacher you/your 4. Words can be put together. in + to = into dog + house = doghouse 5. Initial letters can be upper or lower case. the/The Here/here is/Is

19. Principles of how words work: 6. . Middle letters can be changed. dad/did sat/sit got/get ripe/rope 7. Letter clusters at the beginnings of words can be added or changed. play/stay sing/thing stamp/champ 8. Letter clusters at the ends of words can be changed. will/with must/much back/band 9. Letter clusters in the middle can be changed. sheet/shirt pail/peel chirp/champ

20. Principles of how words work: 10. Letters can be added to the front of words or word parts. am/ham or/for up/cup it/spit 11. Some words sound the same but are spelled differently. here/hear to/two/too 12. Some words are spelled the same but sound different. read/read record/record

21. Principles of how words work: 13. Words can be read through analogy. stump st op jump crack cry back trail treemail 14. Letters can be added at the beginning and at the ending of words or letter chunks. at splat splatter stand understand understanding eat tr eat tr eat ing am champ champion ar art smart smartest

22. Child makes analogies on his own: “Before the teacher can allow the child to think of another word and then make the change himself, he must be working with considerable independence. She has to prepare the ground carefully for that independence.” Marie Clay LL2, p. 144

23. Learning how words work could be done entirely on the words the child already knows. Do not hurry into new territory.

24. Most supportive level: Notice the different concepts: book can up look cat cup Teacher gives both words and does so both orally and visually.

25. Slightly less support from teacher: go has _and shirt Teacher gives the two words orally, but only one is visual.

26. Much less support: look play must _or car_ Teacher asks the question. Child must initiate the word.

27. Least amount of support: • When reading continuous text, the child must make the analogy. st am p

28. “The habit of linking needs to start early.”Lee Skandalaris We want kids to say, “this is like that.” • “I have that word in my other book” • ‘brother’ – that’s like Brian’s name • This story is like that other book • Hey, ‘shoe/too’ – they rhyme • That has ‘and’ in it --- standing

29. There are different levels of knowing a word.

30. We cannot assume that a correctly read word is known in all its detail.” Clay, LL2, p. 46

31. When does a child really know a word? • New word • Only just known • Successfully problem-solved • Easily produced but easily thrown • Well-known and recognized in most contexts • Known in many variant forms. Marie Clay Literacy Lesson Two, p. 46

32. Instruction on “word work” is woven throughout the day.

33. Balanced Literacy Approach To-With-By Modeled Writing Shared Writing Interactive Writing Independent Writing Teacher Students Read Aloud Shared Reading Guided Reading Independent Reading

34. Word work opportunities throughout the day: • Mini-lessons for word study • Morning Message • Shared Writing/ Interactive Writing • Centers/Stations • Writing Workshop • Shared Reading • Before, during, after Guided Reading

35. “Writing can contribute to the building of almost every kind of inner control of literacy learning that is needed by the successful reader.” Marie Clay

36. Understanding how the brain works helps with teaching words.

37. “We can’t get inside and rewire a brain, but we can arrange things so that it gets rewired. If we are skilled, we can set up conditions that favor this rewiring, and we can create an environment that nurtures it.” James Zull The Art of Changing the Brain

38. So what about high frequency words?

39. “Struggling readers… generally have a lower repertoire of words that they can recognize effortlessly and their word solving is inefficient, slow, and tedious.” Fountas & Pinnell When Readers Struggle, p. 261

40. “By the end of first grade, children should be able to write 50-100 words quickly and accurately and to use their knowledge of spelling patterns to produce many more words, which may be correct or nearly correct.” Fountas & Pinnell Word Matters, p. 89

41. Develop a way to study words: • Look at the word; use your eyes. (teacher can say it and run finger under it.) • Run your finger under it as you say it slowly (coordinating L-to-R) • Close your eyes and see it. • What do you hear at the beginning? (using ears.) • Look again (child scans without help.) • Now try writing it here (not copying.)

42. Arrange for repetition • Arrange for over-learning • Practice reconstructing with magnetics • Introduce tracing • Use games “Games in general have little value, but designed specifically for a particular child and used for a brief period of time they may help to increase the items that a child remembers.” LL2, Clay, p. 176

43. Other sources - Word Matters: • Chapter 14 – How to set up routines in your classroom for a word study system – choosing words, spelling buddies, activities with word learning, look/cover/say/check, buddy tests, etc. • Appendix 34 – lists of mini-lessons on word solving strategies, saying words slowly, using resources, giving a buddy test, etc. • In When Readers Struggle - Chapter 12, Building and Using a Repertoire of Words – activities for working with words.

44. Catching Readers Before They Fall, Pat Johnson and Katie Keier, StenhouseOne Child at a Time: Making the Most of Your Time with Struggling Readers, Pat Johnson, Stenhousepatjohnson222@gmail.com (@PatJ222 on Twitter)katieannkeier@gmail.com (@bluskyz on Twitter)www.catchingreaders.com Follow our Catching Readers page on Facebook