Early Literacy Instruction: A Comprehensive Framework For Teaching Reading And Writing, K-3

by Smith, John A.; Read, Sylvia

• ISBN13: 9780130989604
• ISBN10: 0130989606
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-01-01
• Publisher: Pearson College Div

Summary

This introductory K-3 literacy instruction text details authentic classroom practice by authors who have recently taught in primary and elementary classrooms. Organized around a comprehensive reading and writing instructional framework, the text balances the authors' rich classroom experiences with a theoretical perspective. The authors also share a wealth of practical teaching strategies, authentic student artifacts, and real teaching examples. The chapter-opening vignettes demonstrate real-world classroom encounters, the phonics and assessment chapters provide especially useful classroom guidance, and the effective strategies offered to help English Language Learners and Struggling Readers in Chapter 11-and in text features throughout the book-make this new text a valuable choice for teacher education.

Author Biography

Sylvia Read is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Elementary Education at Utah State University.

Table of Contents

Reading and Writing Instruction Frameworks

What Is Reading?

Foundations of Literacy

Reading Aloud

Word Study

Independent Reading

Guiding and Supporting Students' Reading

Writing Instruction

Nonfiction Reading and Writing

Reading Assessment

Interventions for Struggling Readers

Putting It All Together

Word Parts We Use

Spelling Pattern and Chunks List

Final Silent E Flash Cards

Vowel Team Flash Cards

Spelling Pattern Bingo

Spelling Test Page

Story Maps

Story Map Response Form

International Reading Association Standards for Reading Professionals

Glossary

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Teachers have a huge responsibility to know and use research-proven methods. When they graduate and get their first jobs, teachers often find themselves doing the things their own elementary teachers did or what the teacher across the hall is doing, or simply following the teacher's manual of the basal textbooks that their district has adopted and provided for their use. This book was written with these new teachers in mind. Both new and experienced teachers need a practical plan to follow that gives them the flexibility to use the effective practices learned in preservice programs and ongoing professional development programs. They also need substantive, evidence-based support so they can use their basal teachers' editions judiciously, and, most of all, ensure that all their students are becoming literate. We provide new teachers aframeworkfor a comprehensive literacy program that includes all of the main elements of the National Reading Panel's reportTeaching Children to Read.This framework also includes important elements that the report did not specifically address, such as writing, reading aloud, independent reading, and assessment. Within this flexible framework, we describe a variety of strategies, models, research-based practices, and well-established best practices for teaching reading and writing to young children. NOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED Early Literacy Instruction: A Comprehensive Framework for Teaching Reading and Writing, K-3draws heavily on our experience as both classroom teachers and teacher educators, which has given us the background we need to help preservice teachers understand theory and research in the context of real classroom practice. The book ties narrative descriptions directly to established theory and proven practices, making them understandable and immediately useful. The content covers the most important aspects of early literacy K-3. Chapter 1, "Reading and Writing Instruction Frameworks," begins by explaining the difference between a flexible reading instruction framework and a reading program. The chapter provides descriptions of three nationally known literacy instruction frameworks and shows how essential elements of literacy instruction are common to all three frameworks. Finally, in this chapter we present an overview of our own five-part--comprehensive and practical--literacy instruction framework. Chapter 2, "What Is Reading?", describes reading as a process of constructing meaning by using both the reader's background knowledge and information from the text. Common word identification processes, such as using sight vocabulary, structural analysis, phonics, context, and syntax, are discussed. The chapter also describes aspects of reading comprehension, including the importance of background knowledge and meaning vocabulary and understanding texts at the literal, inferential, and critical reading levels. All of these components of the reading process are then put into perspective through a discussion of their interactive relationships. The chapter concludes with a few thoughts on the importance of attitude and the teacher's role in teaching students not justhowto read but also towantto read. Chapter 3, "Foundations of Literacy," describes how some children come to our kindergarten classrooms well prepared for learning as a result of being read to, sung to, taught the alphabet, and included in stimulating conversations by family members for literally thousands of hours (Adams, 1990a). Unfortunately, increasing numbers of children are arriving in our kindergartens unprepared for learning, with virtually none of these family-based literacy experiences. Chapter 3 describes four important foundations for literacy learning: developing oral language, knowing the alphabet letter names and sounds, understanding how speech sounds and printed letters blend together to form spoken and written words, a