I am an ELA teacher, with a master's degree in curriculum and instruction. My specialty has always been in reading. It is by far, the most vital of all subjects. If a student cannot read he/she is doomed for all other subjects. One cannot be a scientist, mathematician, historian, or be proficient in any subject or profession if reading is not mastered.
Most of my student teaching was done in a reading classroom, and then my first 5 years of teaching was with struggling 7th and 8th grade readers. During this time I learned so much about finding and fixing holes.
Most of the time struggling readers lacked basic comprehension skills (i.e. visualizing while reading) or didn't understand what your voice does when it hits certain punctuation, or did not immediately recognize most sight words, or, or, or, or, or...
And the majority of these students who struggled did not have memories of their parents reading to them as children. Typically the parents of these students did not excel in school, therefore having the attitude that education was not important. This attitude was passed down to their children, who also lost the will to try because of multiple years of failure.
The solution was pretty simple, yet extremely difficult. I had to find simple ways for them to be successful, thus gaining confidence. With success and confidence comes a desire, the want-to, a new found interest. We used short non-fiction passages, we read poetry over and over again, we practiced readers theatre, I did a lot of think-alouds, and saw success.
Since becoming a mother and teaching my own kindergartener how to read, I've learned so much more! Still, those same concepts apply to my progressing reader, as to those struggling readers: repetition, fun/interesting passages, think-alouds, &etc. give success, which gain confidence!
Now that she automatically recognizes short vowel and consonant sounds and is well on her way to memorizing 20+ sight words, she is ready and able to begin reading and writing sentences! Aside from being a proud teacher-mom, she is super excited! One of her favorite warm-ups is the pyramid game. Each day we do a new one and she enjoys progressing through each line to finally read the complete sentence.
This is a great activity for parents to do alongside their emerging reader, or a wonderful warm-up for teachers to begin the day, or for homeschool teachers looking for a supplemental activity to begin any reading lesson.
It consists of nothing more than consonant-vowel-consonant and sight words. The more success she has, the more she wants to do. I'm sure that once we make it through this set, I'll be providing more. Until then, enjoy the 25 pyramids given for $2 by following these links:
Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Notebook
Most of my student teaching was done in a reading classroom, and then my first 5 years of teaching was with struggling 7th and 8th grade readers. During this time I learned so much about finding and fixing holes.
Most of the time struggling readers lacked basic comprehension skills (i.e. visualizing while reading) or didn't understand what your voice does when it hits certain punctuation, or did not immediately recognize most sight words, or, or, or, or, or...
And the majority of these students who struggled did not have memories of their parents reading to them as children. Typically the parents of these students did not excel in school, therefore having the attitude that education was not important. This attitude was passed down to their children, who also lost the will to try because of multiple years of failure.
The solution was pretty simple, yet extremely difficult. I had to find simple ways for them to be successful, thus gaining confidence. With success and confidence comes a desire, the want-to, a new found interest. We used short non-fiction passages, we read poetry over and over again, we practiced readers theatre, I did a lot of think-alouds, and saw success.
Since becoming a mother and teaching my own kindergartener how to read, I've learned so much more! Still, those same concepts apply to my progressing reader, as to those struggling readers: repetition, fun/interesting passages, think-alouds, &etc. give success, which gain confidence!
Now that she automatically recognizes short vowel and consonant sounds and is well on her way to memorizing 20+ sight words, she is ready and able to begin reading and writing sentences! Aside from being a proud teacher-mom, she is super excited! One of her favorite warm-ups is the pyramid game. Each day we do a new one and she enjoys progressing through each line to finally read the complete sentence.
This is a great activity for parents to do alongside their emerging reader, or a wonderful warm-up for teachers to begin the day, or for homeschool teachers looking for a supplemental activity to begin any reading lesson.
It consists of nothing more than consonant-vowel-consonant and sight words. The more success she has, the more she wants to do. I'm sure that once we make it through this set, I'll be providing more. Until then, enjoy the 25 pyramids given for $2 by following these links:
Teachers Pay Teachers
Teachers Notebook
