Instruction

Essential Segmenting and Blending Skills

1. “Segmenting: First Sound

Description: After hearing the teacher say a whole word, students identify the first sound in a word.

2. Blending: Onset-Rime

Description: After hearing the teacher slowly say the onset [the beginning sound(s) that precedes the vowel in a syllable] and the rime [the rest of the syllable that contains the vowel and all that follows it], students say the whole word.

3. Segmenting: Onset-Rime

Description: After hearing the teacher say the whole word, students say the onset and the rime.

4. Blending: Individual Sounds

Description: After hearing the teacher slowly say the individual sounds in the word, students say the whole word.

5. Segmenting: Individual Sounds

Description: After hearing the teacher say the whole word, students say the individual sounds in the word.”

(Bursuck, Damer, Page 42)

Ways to teach Segmenting and Blending *At Tier 1*

Signaling for Segmenting OR Blending- This may help students who have trouble memorizing the words but pick up on visual ques easier.

Increase Student Responding and Attention- This is a good way to ensure that all students are engaged with the idea that they need to listen to participate. This is also a good example of teacher talk because the amount we speak is limited so it should be worth wild.

Require Answering in Unison- This is also another good way for students to have the expectation of being envolved and distractions are limited due to the amount they need to respond.

Increase Support for New Learning- This is a great way to provide scaffolding. This also follows the My Turn, Together, Your Turn which is a tool teachers use when teaching. This is a great method so students can first see you do it then do it together which gives them a stronger knowledge of the material to try it on their own.

*Tier 2* Intervention for Segmenting and Blending is provided for students who still struggle even after the tier 1 intervention. At tier 2 students would work in smaller groups with the teacher. This is to have a more focused approach to the material that they may be struggling with.

If students are still not reaching goals set then a tier 3 intervention may be needed. In a tier 3 intervention students work one on one to work on targeted material.

Ways to Teach Oral Reading Fluency and Expressive Reading:

• Repeated Readings: The basic procedure, taped reading, partner reading, Page races, duet or shared reading

• Expressive Reading: Echo reading, choral reading, think about your reading, reading in chunks, scalloping the text, readers theater, and teaching intonation

“As students move into reading third- and fourth-grade-level text, a larger percentage of your instruction will shift toward teaching students to comprehend increasingly difficult text.” (Bursuck, Damer, Page 239)

Teaching Vocabulary:

There are three types of words to teach students; important words, useful words, and difficult words. These words are chosen when planning lessons where new words may come up. An example of this would be a lesson with a book that has new vocab words in it. After the words are chosen the decision needs to be made whether these words will be taught before, during, or after the lesson.

It is good to model examples when it comes to vocab words compared to just a spoken definition.

When developing vocab questions some good practices could be:

• Using names of students in the questions
• End the question with a chance for students to practice the word they just learned.
• Make sure the word in the question is the word used from the story (for example if the word is used as past tense, make sure it is that way in the question)

Developing phonemic awareness in students is more likely to happen when three important parts are introduced to students. These are, one being sure to monitor a student’s progress to ensure that students are progressing as they should be.

The second part is ensuring that the instruction is intense but having students in small groups so more individualized instruction can be given. We don’t want the instruction to be easy because students will never grow but if the instruction is too hard and they do not have us to guide them in smaller groups then they will become frustrated with the material.

The third and final aspect of this instruction is to make sure your instruction is explicitly aiming for the phonemic awareness skill and strengthing that with instruction.

Five Components of Evidence-Based Reading Instruction-

1. Phonemic Awareness Instruction
2. Systemic Phonics Instruction
3. Fluency Instruction
4. Vocabulary Instruction
5. Comprehension Instruction

ELL Students:

• To help ELL students with expression you can try a few different activities such as:
  • Up and Down Scale: This is the have students practice with different pitches by using a scale from 1-5 and have them say words at different pitches.
  • Turn Up The Volume: First, you show a student how to say a word or sound, then take a breath and say it louder, then take another breath and say it even louder, and finally take another breath and yell it out. This could also work well for the whole class when everyone needs a break to release some energy.
  • Variety is the Spice of Life: “Have your students memorize a sentence or short poem before changing how they recite it. First, ask them to change one thing about their oral presentation. For example: 
    • a. First read the poem slowly before reading it quickly. 
    • b. First read the poem quietly before reading it loudly. 
    • c. First read the poem in a high pitch before reading it in a low pitch. 
  • Once students can change one dynamic, have them change two. For example, ask them to read slowly and quietly before reading quickly and loudly. Try some other combinations.
  • Finally, ask students to change three dynamics. Ask them to read the poem quickly, quietly, and with a low pitch. Ask them to read it quickly, loudly, and with a high pitch.” (Bursuck, Damer, page 233)
• Idioms that ELL students will never use should be avoided and rather ones that the student may encounter more often should be broken down and taught. If students first language has a similar idiom, connecting the two may help the student understand it better (273)
• When ELL students are reading narrative and expository text they may have trouble understanding the book if they do not have the background that is needed from the book. For example, a holiday that is celebrated in the US may not be understood or may be confusing due to that holiday not existing for that student typically.
• Signal words can also be challenging for ELL students so explicit instruction of signal words and their function allows ELL students to use them as a strategy.
  • “Teachers can use thinkalouds to demonstrate how signal words provide clues for understanding, ask students to locate specific signal words in text, describe how the words provide clues to the meaning of a  passage, and construct writing activities that require students to use specified signal words.” (328)
• “Some of the most important include the following: 
  • Use graphic organizers with all new text.
  • Present key information about lesson content through visual cues, pictures, and gestures several times. 
  • Model how to summarize the text, or have another student do it, before providing practice. 
  • Emphasize vocabulary instruction and strategies discussed in Chapter 6 whenever you teach comprehension. 
  • Use interactive read-alouds that provide many opportunities to participate in structured discussions of the text.” (Bursuck, Damer, Page 329)

References:

Sousa, David A. HOW THE BRAIN LEARNS TO READ. SAGE Publications Ltd., 2014.

William D. Bursuck, Mary Damer. Teaching Reading to Students Who Are At Risk or Have Disabilities. Pearson, 2015.