Managing the Working Parts of Reading

Managing the Working Parts of Reading

Ensure 3rd Grade Reading Competency

Developed by The Mission Literacy Workgroup

Managing the Working Parts of Reading: Ensure 3rd Grade Reading

The Mission Literacy Workgroup created a chart identifying “working parts” that contribute to the development of reading including the supportive research, free (or available with book purchase) assessments to manage the development, and benchmarks to monitor appropriate acquisition of those “working parts.” The chart is available on

This booklet was prepared to put assessment information in the most accessible format for teachers working with students who are developing readers. The most successful beginning reading programs include managing these working parts. A plan to closely monitor the “working parts” creates a tightly woven net that keeps students from falling behind and failing to develop the skill of reading.

When determining benchmarks, the following documents were referenced: Michigan Early Childhood Standards of Quality, Teaching Strategies Gold, Michigan K-12 Standards for English Language Arts

We hope this format will increase the number of students who are closely monitored so they can become successful third grade readers.

Mission Literacy Workgroup

Coordinator: Susan Codere Kelly

Pamela Ciganick - CharEm ISD

Jackie Fry - COP ESD,

Patti Loper - CharEm ISD,

Barbara Mick - COOR ISD,

Elaine Weber, Macomb ISD

Concepts of Print

WHY?

In developing print awareness, a child begins to understand what print looks like, how it works, and the fact that print carries meaning (Strickland & Schickedanz, 2004). Teachers who have an understanding of what aspects of print their students are attending to can introduce students early on to print conventions through experiences in both reading and writing—especially through focused instruction in the first six months of school (Clay, 2000, pp. 24-25).

Assessments

Observation Opportunities

● During any library time, independent reading time - how are they handling books? How are they interacting with the text and pictures?

Benchmarks

1st Grade: Recognize the distinguishing features of a sentence.

Kindergarten: Knows parts of books (front, back, title, index, etc.).

Pre-Kindergarten: Orients book correctly, turns pages front to back, understands where to start reading and the direction to follow.

Phonological Awareness

WHY?

The two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness (Adams, 1990).

Many studies have established that phonemic awareness (the ability to identify the individual sounds in words) and phonics (the representation of those sounds with letters) are essential for skilled reading (Adams, 1994; Ehri, 2004; Torgesen et al., 2001).

Assessments

Observation Opportunities

● Participation in daily circle time or carpet activities

Benchmarks

1st Grade: Hears and counts syllables and changes words by adding, deleting, or substituting phonemes.

Kindergarten: Plays with syllables and hears rhyme, onset & rime, segmenting, blending.

Pre-Kindergarten: Fills in missing rhyme and generates rhyming words. Shows awareness that some words begin the same way. Shows awareness of words in a sentence and syllables in words.

Knowledge of Alphabet

WHY?

The two best predictors of early reading success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness (Adams, 1990).

Being able to discriminate and quickly recognize important letters is also helpful in attaching sounds to the correct letters when reading words (Neuhaus, 2003).

Assessments

Observation Opportunities

● During authentic reading and writing

● Are they applying their knowledge in center activities?

Benchmarks Kindergarten: Names all uppercase and lowercase letters and knows that words are made of sounds.

Pre-Kindergarten: Recognizes letters in own name. Identifies the sounds of a few letters. The GELN Essential Instructional Practices in Early Literacy (Prekindergarten) suggests a child should be able to identify 18 uppercase and 15 lower case letters by name, as well as the sounds associated with several letters.

Word Recognition

WHY?

Word study develops students' abilities in phonics, word recognition, and vocabulary (Baker, 2000).

2,000 high frequency words account for 90 percent of the words in conversations, 87 percent of the words in fiction, 80 percent of the words in newspapers, and 78 percent of the words in academic texts (Nation, 2001).

The National Reading Panel (2000) identifies the development of ‘sight word reading competencies’ as a critical component in developing early reading foundational skills.

Assessments

Observation Opportunities

● During small group reading instruction

Benchmarks

3rd Grade: 300-650 words

2nd Grade: 300 words

1st Grade: 200 words

Kindergarten: 100 words

Pre-Kindergarten: Recognizes name and a few personally meaningful words.

Phonics

WHY?

Many studies have established that phonemic awareness (the ability to identify the individual sounds in words) and phonics (the representation of those sounds with letters) are essential for skilled reading (Adams, 1994; Ehri, 2004; Torgesen et al., 2001).

Findings of three decades of research confirm the importance and effectiveness of systematic phonics instruction, particularly in kindergarten and first- and second-grade classrooms (Armbruster et al., 2001).

Assessments

Observation Opportunities

● Are they applying their phonics knowledge in their writing?

● Word sorts or pattern building games

Benchmarks

3rd Grade: Uses phonics knowledge to spell increasing numbers of words correctly.

2nd Grade: Uses phonics knowledge to spell words correctly.

1st Grade: Uses phonics knowledge to spell words correctly; still “ear spelling” and uses phonics knowledge to read all kinds of words.

Kindergarten: Uses phonological awareness to “ear spell” words for writing and knows that words are made of sounds.

Pre-Kindergarten: Uses phonological awareness to “ear spell” words for writing; uses first letter of word to represent whole word and/or represents beginning and ending sounds of words with letters.

Oral Language

WHY?

The acquisition of oral language skills often begins at a young age, before students begin focusing on print-based concepts such as sound-symbol correspondence and decoding. Because these skills are often developed early in life, children with limited oral language ability at the time they enter kindergarten are typically at a distinct disadvantage (Fielding et. al, 2007).

‘Oral language development precedes and is the foundation for written language development; in other words, oral language is primary and written language builds on it. Children’s oral language competence is strongly predictive of their facility in learning to read and write: listening and speaking vocabulary and even mastery of syntax set boundaries as to what children can read and understand no matter how well they can decode (Catts, Adolf, & Weismer, 2006; Hart & Risley, 1995; Hoover & Gough, 1990: Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).’ (CCSS-ELA/Lit.)

Assessments: In order to assess oral language and the depth of vocabulary knowledge, we must use more than a single item to document a student’s use of language and/or target words.

Observation Opportunities

● During oral language opportunities (discussions, conferring, group work), listen for use of vocabulary taught, used by the student in correct context and to further the discourse. Keep anecdotal notes.

● Assess student writing to look for use of vocabulary taught, used in correct context and to deepen the meaning of the written piece.

Benchmarks

3rd Grade: Children need to learn 2,000 to 3,000 new words each year from 3rd grade onward, ~ 6–8 per day.

2nd Grade: Average students know about 6,000 root words by the end of 2nd grade.

In 1st and 2nd grade, children need to learn 800+ words per year, about 2 per day.

Kindergarten:

Prekindergarten: Names familiar people, animals and objects. Develops vocabulary by using words learned from stories and conversations. Tells simple stories which connect characters and events, but provide limited details and/or sequence of events.

Reading Fluency

Students who are not at least moderately fluent in reading by 3rd grade are unlikely to graduate from high school (Slavin, Karweit, Wasik, Madden, & Dolan, 1994).

Assessments

Observation Opportunities

● During conferring

● During guided reading

● Listen in during pair-and-share

Benchmarks

3rd Grade: Creates meaning while reading more and more smoothly; Goal: 80-110 wpm.

2nd Grade: Creates meaning while reading more and more smoothly; Goal: 70-100 wpm.

1st Grade: Creates meaning while reading more and more smoothly; Goal: 30-60 wpm.

Kindergarten: Applies sight words and Fry Instant Fluency Phrases.

Pre-Kindergarten: Pretends to read using some of the language from the text; describes action and uses pictures to order events.

Retelling

Why: Retelling stories is part of a typical progression children go through as they learn to read. They progress from talking about pictures to connecting ideas across pages using “book language.” Eventually, they will begin to use a variety of strategies including knowledge of letters and sounds or picture cues to comprehend texts (Sulzby, 1985). Retelling stories helps children develop understandings of both story structure and language which ultimately contributes to understanding text (Morrow, 1985).

Retelling will prompt growth in the following areas:

1. Knowledge of text forms
2. Knowledge of text conventions
3. Conscious awareness of processes involved in text construction
4. Range and variety of text forms and conventions being employed in other writing tasks
5. Control of vocabulary
6. Reading flexibility
7. Confidence

Read and Retell, Brown, Hazel and Cambourne, Brian; Heinemann 1987

Assessments

Observation Opportunities During group talk during read aloud Pair-and-share Conferring or any kind of “workshop talk” Filling out any kind of graphic organizer such as a story mountain or a GO Shape Map

Benchmarks -- Students are assessed on their ability to retell (written or orally) on developmentally appropriate text.

2nd Grade: Recount stories, including fables and folktales, from diverse cultures and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

1st Grade: Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

Kindergarten: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories including key details.

Pre-Kindergarten: Retells familiar stories using pictures or props as prompt.

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Why: Comprehension strategies help readers enhance their understanding, overcome difficulties comprehending text, and compensate for weak or imperfect knowledge related to the text.

Assessments

• Questioning
• Connecting
• Visualizing
• Determining Importance
• Inferring
• Synthesizing
• Repairing Comprehension

Benchmarks

Grade-level Accountability

Third Grade through Fifth Grade: Make inferences, synthesize and repair comprehension with guidance.

Third Grade: Ask Questions, visualize and determine importance.

Second Grade: Ask questions and visualize.

Pre-Kindergarten through First Grade: Ask questions.

Close, Critical/Analytical Reading

WHY? Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately. Directing student attention on the text itself empowers students to understand the central ideas and key supporting details. It also enables students to reflect on the meanings of individual words and sentences; the order in which sentences unfold; and the development of ideas over the course of the text, which ultimately leads students to arrive at an understanding of the text as a whole. (PARCC, 2011, p. 7)

Benchmark: K to 3rd Grade Standards

Deeper Reading – Generative Reading and Application

Why?

Deep reading is abstracting the text to the concept/generalization/principle/theory level for the purpose of applying the knowledge or wisdom to another text or situation. The result is generative in that the reader/thinker gains new insights, new perspectives, and new knowledge.

Two processes used are profundity scales and levels of meaning.

Profundity Scales that moves from the concrete to the abstract level in layers of planes: physical, mental, moral, physiological, analytical, philosophical and transformational. The transformations are abstract enough to let students apply them to other situations or even other disciplines. This occurs as students answer questions about a main character’s actions and progresses to higher levels of thinking in the process.