What Can I Say Besides "Sound it Out"?/ Teaching Phonics and Spelling Patterns

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"Further, a developmental process is involved in learning to read words, and at different stages of development children read words in qualitatively different ways"(Clark 446)

English Language Learners (ELL), otherwise referred to students with English as a second language (ESL), have to learn English in an entirely different manner than students who grew up in an English speaking home. 

Often their comprehension of teachers is much lower, and they may feel frustration from being unable to express their knowledge in the language which the classroom is taught. Teachers need a general understanding of the student's primary language and the phonetics involved in order to properly apply comparable concepts to their English instruction.
For example, with Spanish ESL students, the teacher should primarily focus on the letters in the English alphabet that are similar in Spanish, such as p, b, t, k, m, n, f, s, and w, and then move onward to differing letters after the children have built up some comprehension confidence. The teacher needs to understand that an a in Spanish sounds like an e in Spanish in order to better detect spelling/ pronunciation issues and deal with them most properly. This is why having teachers who excel and professionalize in ESL instruction are an important component to any culturally diverse school. 

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The above book is continued instruction on scaffolding, this weeks topic, as applied to ELL and ESL students. 

1. How best could a school that does not have a budget to hire ESL teachers specific to common second languages increase their capability to teach such students?

2. How best would a teacher integrate these students' necessity for a differentiated teaching style into an integrated, diverse classroom?

Allington, Richard and Patricia Cunningham. Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write.

Clark, Kathleen. What Can I Say Besides "Sound it Out"? Coaching Word Recognition in Beginning Reading.

Developmental Appropriateness in the Classroom

"Teachers of young children, whether employed in preschools, child care programs, or elementary schools, have a unique responsibility to promote children's literacy development, based on the most current professional knowledge and research." (IRA, NAEYC)

Three helpful tips for teachers hoping to implement structural changes in their classroom:

1). Rather than teaching letters explicitly, such as the much utilized "letter of the week", begin teaching through association and analogies, such as with the names of fellow classmates and popular icons.
***However, there is a fine line between making much-needed associations and teaching children to value things that aren't conducive to healthy lifestyles.
ex. The article associates the letter Mm with 
McDonalds. I don't think that fast food is something
that primary school children should value, lest they 
become, as the baby above, desensitized to media. 

2). Develop a process for your classroom to decode unfamiliar words: 1) Look at beginning letters and make associations 2) Look in middle for familiar syllables 3) Look at end letters and make associations

3) Integrate phonemic awareness activities into the classroom that are fun for the children, but deliberate on the part of the teacher. 
*** Don't be afraid to use technology and multimedia! http://pbskids.org/games/rhyming.html

What is the importance of a joint position between the IRA and the NAEYC, endorsed by a number of other organizations? What type of impact and reverberations could the suggestions wherein have on the public education system?
Think back to your childhood and your favorite books age 4-6. Are any of them able to be translated into a phonemic awareness activity? How would such an activity be organized?

Bell, Donna and Donna Jarvis. Letting go of the "Letter of the Week".
International Reading Association and National Association for the Education for Young Children. Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children. 
Yopp, Hallie and Ruth Yopp. Supporting Phonemic Awareness Development in the Classroom.

Jones Family/ Building Literacy Foundation

"The Jones family has viewpoints on literacy- that literacy is uplifting and empowering, important for building relationships with others, a potential pastime, and a practice accomplished with others- to which young Kiki has been exposed since before attending school" ("The Jones Family Culture of Literacy 41)

This quote reminds us as teachers of a very important fact: every child, before entering any formal classroom setting, has some amount of baggage. They have preconceptions about everything, including literacy, from how they were treated, what they witnessed, and the kind of behaviors they modeled in their family culture. Whether or not a child enters school like Kiki, with a strong grasp on the importance of literacy, or quite the opposite, the teacher has the opportunity to foster a passion for learning in every one of their students' lives.
Classrooms that Work references the importance of pre-educational literacy experiences, as well as tips for teachers to use in their classroom. I remember fondly my refrigerator being filled with my personal "creations" , need they be pictures I then explained to my parents or written text, the making of such an important learning mechanism for developing the habit of reading and writing before maintaining an ability to do so. The book also focuses on phonemic awareness, which can be fostered through comparing words, letters, and sounds, clapping syllables, or repetition and rhyme.
The video below is a rhyming song; this helps children to build their active vocabulary through pairing words with pictures and to better remember what rhymes with "pig" by setting it to an infectious tune. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOu-QkmInKc

1). How could you, as a teacher, learn more about a child's intergenerational culture of literacy? What kind of questions could you ask a elementary-age student that would lend you this type of insight?
2). Children have been compared to small sponges. They are apt to "model" any behavior that they see around them. What type of behaviors could you model to young, pre-literate children that would help them become more prepared for school and learning to read?
3) Would you consider yourself more a proponent of the whole language or phonemic awareness approach? Why?

Cunningham,  Patricia and Richard Allington. "Classrooms that Work: They Can All Read and Write."    Chapter 3
Johnson, Amy. "The Jones Family's Culture of Literacy."

Blog Post 1: Chapters 1&2/ What I've Learned

"Pop Open a Good Book"

"We Love Books"

Example of Book Crates Akin to Vignette in Chapter 2

What makes an effective teacher? While students, teachers, parents, and general society members all have their two cents to offer toward this question, Cunningham and Allington give a critical analysis in defense of their own theories.

In the article, Allington argues the six T's: time, texts, teaching, talk, tasks, and testing. In my opinion, students can only be taught effectively in a safe environment where they feel valued. That's the key. Each child needs to be held to those high expectations (developed on an individual basis, not just expecting better than how the best performer performs for the lowest) and treated as an individual with preferred instruction techniques and specific interests. 

Seing as most new teachers, without that "leg up" or network within the education system, will end up in inner city schools, I found the book crate idea particularly applicable and useful to new teachers. The ideas of keeping a board of books students liked ad disliked and facilitating discussion, reading groups, book crates, and big buddy readers from local schools all are excellent, low cost (key!) ideas for incoming teachers,

Having volunteered in a Type 1 Knox county elementary school for the entirety of my college career, I see this "buddy system" work on a regular basis. One child, Onika, a very feisty black fourth grader, is a perfect example. Predominantly, the volunteers at the school are white, middle class women. One day that I was volunteering, a group of volunteers from a local high school-to-college program came in. Onika latched on immediately to one specific volunteer: a young, attractive black woman. Without ever having talked to the woman before, Onika focused her attention solely on her and ignored everyone else. Having that familiarity, having male readers for the male students and representation of every religious/ racial group as mentors in the classroom is incredibly important. 

This goes back to a final point touched upon in the readings: that of variety within text. Chose books with female protagonists every once in a while. Chose books about minorities and important historical events. Don't simply read Magic Treehouse to your kids; remember that regardless of what interests you, as the teacher, you need to help every child fin their own reading niche!

Of Arlington's six T's for effective classroom instruction, which do you find the most prevalent/ necessary?

How do you, as a teacher, facilitate that one-on-one instruction and discussion with a classroom of thirty students, possible many of which in need of emotional/ academic support, during a school day? 

What are some other innovative solutions for classrooms low on supplies and monetary funds?

And finally, how does one best create a teacher-teacher mentor environment in which "veteran" successful teachers can coach newbies on necessary skills? In other words, how does one remove the atmosphere of every teacher "closing their door" during the school day to the rest of the faculty and staff?