Reading Instruction in Elementary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad to hear MCPS is moving away from phonics. This article from todays New York Times is another sign that balanced literacy approach was a disaster.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR17AZykPVrMtcNOT3PXryqY-JUoslbR2NpGNs8_-9LmlIXt4RCfUkO8EZY

so phonics is out again?

Phonics is included within Structured Literacy.

https://news.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/quicknotes/the-shift-to-structured-literacy-in-elementary-schools/

Giving the DIBELS rather than MAP-RF is not really structured literacy...I'll believe it when I see it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone concerned about their child not reading in k or 1st, or deciding well in 2nd or above you can easily buy quality phonics programs and teach your child yourself. Some good programs are
All About Reading
Abecedarian
If your child just needs some review here are 10-15 minute programs that you just open a book and go:
Dancing Bears reading (a British program synthetic phonics)
Phonics Pathways

Spend 10-15 minutes every day over the summer working with your child. It will make a huge difference
If you aren’t able to force yourself to do it and you need an external push then Kumon reading is phonics based and your child is required to do 10-15 minutes a day every day.

That is OK for parents who realize that there is a problem..But MCPS should be providing basic high quality instruction to our students, and especially students whose parents don't have the free time to float around on these boards, buy supplemental instructions, and teach the kids themselves.

+1. This. Most working parents don't have that kind of time and a lot don't know what they should be doing. Not everyone knows how to teach. I am ESL myself and I have no idea what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how long ago MCPS has ditched the phonics? I recall when my son was in K, the teachers essentially told me I wasted my time when I taught him phonics in preschool. They told me that all kids eventually catch up with each other. They just seemed unimpressed and not thrilled about his reading level. They did have the break up the kids into different groups anyway, so I didn't see the issue, but they were clearly rolling their eyes when I shared how I prepared him. Pretty sure phonics was not being taught at the time. This was about 15 years ago.

As a parent of two children with disabilities, MCPS did not have a reading program to meet their needs. We were told with my oldest to not worry about her not meeting standards and not being on grade level that all students catch up by third grade. For students like my child (and about 25% of students) that wasn’t the case. In third grade, the elementary school acknowledged my child couldn’t read on grade level but they didn’t have a program for her.

I learned at that point to no longer trust MCPS. They were passing a child from grade to grade who could not read. I got my daughter privately tested and then my son when he showed the same difficulties. I hired a reading tutor who was an expert in Lindamood Bell. Within a year of services multiple times per week, my children learn skills to compensate for their disabilities that impacted reading.

MCPS views the bottom 25% of students as disposable. They have never had reading programs that will address every child’s needs even though there are many evidence based programs available.

Can you share information about where you found the tutor?

I’m concerned that my K kid still cannot read and she will be heading to first grade. We have voiced our concerns multiple times but the teacher assured us that she’s meeting expectations.

Same with my K kid. I think what concerns me the most is that they seem frustrated and don’t want to try to read even simple readers (like the first Bob books set). But when I broach to the teacher she assure me he is meeting expectations (all Ps) and not to worry.

You are correct to be concerned. My DD also refused to read Bob Books at home to us in K and was diagnosed with dyslexia in 2nd grade.

https://dyslexia.yale.edu/dyslexia/signs-of-dyslexia/#part-kindergarten-first-grade

Unfortunately teachers aren’t trained to recognize the signs.

They actually are trained but they are coached not to say anything or be negative

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad to hear MCPS is moving away from phonics. This article from todays New York Times is another sign that balanced literacy approach was a disaster.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR17AZykPVrMtcNOT3PXryqY-JUoslbR2NpGNs8_-9LmlIXt4RCfUkO8EZY

It makes my blood boil... Professor Calkins does not believe she has anything to apologize for....And, she asked, shouldn’t the phonics-first camp apologize? “Are people asking whether they’re going to apologize for overlooking writing?” she said.

Unfortunately MCPS, is still going to be doing a Balanced Literacy and Structured Literacy Hybrid for the foreseeable future. If the Lower School Reading thread on the Private Board is accurate, there are only a few schools in the whole region who truly use structured literacy.

+1
Calkins's comment makes my blood boil.

but what also makes my blood boil is why it took decades of poor performance for only a sliver of schools to start to recognize how ineffective the balanced literacy approach is. year after year after year, less than half the students are on grade level with reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone concerned about their child not reading in k or 1st, or deciding well in 2nd or above you can easily buy quality phonics programs and teach your child yourself. Some good programs are
All About Reading
Abecedarian
If your child just needs some review here are 10-15 minute programs that you just open a book and go:
Dancing Bears reading (a British program synthetic phonics)
Phonics Pathways

Spend 10-15 minutes every day over the summer working with your child. It will make a huge difference
If you aren’t able to force yourself to do it and you need an external push then Kumon reading is phonics based and your child is required to do 10-15 minutes a day every day.

That is OK for parents who realize that there is a problem..But MCPS should be providing basic high quality instruction to our students, and especially students whose parents don't have the free time to float around on these boards, buy supplemental instructions, and teach the kids themselves.

+1. This. Most working parents don't have that kind of time and a lot don't know what they should be doing. Not everyone knows how to teach. I am ESL myself and I have no idea what to do.

Raises hand. I can tell my kindergartner is struggling with reading even though he gets Ps across the board on the report card. I would gladly spend 10-15 per day helping to teach him to read if I understood WHAT to do. He gets frustrated so easily and is resistant to trying to read with me, so one misstep on my end and we’d only get 1 minute into the 10-15 minutes. I just feel lost.

[Anonymous]

I think its the proliferation of "sight words" that has really jumped the shark. Kids in kindergarten and first grade spend more time learning sight words than actually learning to decode.

[Anonymous]

I hear you PPs about not knowing where to start. Was completely lost myself. Really the school should be teaching phonics, then so many parents wouldn’t have to try to figure out how to teach reading. But yes my child was word guessing everything thanks to Balanced Literacy, so I had to step in.

You really just need to read the introduction to whatever phonics book you’re using. The introduction will tell you how to teach phonics using their method. Teaching phonics can be very technical and there is a lot of terminology involved, but if you want to help your child, you’re just going to have to suffer through learning this, as boring and excruciating as it is. It’s either that or hire a tutor. Hope that helps and good luck.

[Anonymous]

Hi, Kindergarten teacher here who uses a lot of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction and who also uses the best parts of balanced literacy.
For the parents who are saying they don't know what to do, here's a simple lay out:
1) Teach letter sounds. I start with sounds that match words they already know. For example, I teach that letter m says /m/ (not "muh"), that mom starts with the letter m and says "mmmmmmmmmom" really stretching out the first sound.
2) Read a LOT of alphabet books from the library to your kids. Put up simple print in the house (ie,labels on the box where you put the legos that has the word "legos", etc). Talk about letters when you read books or see signs, etc
3) Once a kid has a few letters (and maybe one vowel--always starting with the short vowels), say they know m, a, t, p, s....then model how to touch each letter and say each sound for "mat", "sat" etc. It can take kids a while to make the jump from knowing letter sounds to knowing how to blend sounds into words. It's also good to do this orally. For example, say the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ and then say "mat" to model how to do this. Do this daily for 1-2 minutes. You can also segment CVC words (say "mat" then say each sound in mat).

While you do this, teach your kids these sight words: I, a, the, see, can, go, like, to, love, am, he, she, is. Use phonics with those words too whenever you can. Even for "the", one can use the /th/ sound to at least sound out the first two letters. Write simple sentences for them to read with these sight words and some CVC words. (I see the cat. He is my dad.)

Once a kid can easily decode CVC words, add more sight words (google kindergarten sight words, teach 1-2 new ones per week and speed up as needed). Then go onto blends and digraphs (ch, th, wh, sh, bl, pl, st, etc with words with short vowels--shot,chip, plan, etc)

Once they have these, start teaching long vowels.

Starfall.com in the kindergarten section has some fun letter sound and CVC reinforcement. Lalilo is okay too.
Bob books are okay, but use those sparingly.

I know this is just a basic overview, so ask questions if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, Kindergarten teacher here who uses a lot of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction and who also uses the best parts of balanced literacy.
For the parents who are saying they don't know what to do, here's a simple lay out:
1) Teach letter sounds. I start with sounds that match words they already know. For example, I teach that letter m says /m/ (not "muh"), that mom starts with the letter m and says "mmmmmmmmmom" really stretching out the first sound.
2) Read a LOT of alphabet books from the library to your kids. Put up simple print in the house (ie,labels on the box where you put the legos that has the word "legos", etc). Talk about letters when you read books or see signs, etc
3) Once a kid has a few letters (and maybe one vowel--always starting with the short vowels), say they know m, a, t, p, s....then model how to touch each letter and say each sound for "mat", "sat" etc. It can take kids a while to make the jump from knowing letter sounds to knowing how to blend sounds into words. It's also good to do this orally. For example, say the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ and then say "mat" to model how to do this. Do this daily for 1-2 minutes. You can also segment CVC words (say "mat" then say each sound in mat).

While you do this, teach your kids these sight words: I, a, the, see, can, go, like, to, love, am, he, she, is. Use phonics with those words too whenever you can. Even for "the", one can use the /th/ sound to at least sound out the first two letters. Write simple sentences for them to read with these sight words and some CVC words. (I see the cat. He is my dad.)

Once a kid can easily decode CVC words, add more sight words (google kindergarten sight words, teach 1-2 new ones per week and speed up as needed). Then go onto blends and digraphs (ch, th, wh, sh, bl, pl, st, etc with words with short vowels--shot,chip, plan, etc)

Once they have these, start teaching long vowels.

Starfall.com in the kindergarten section has some fun letter sound and CVC reinforcement. Lalilo is okay too.
Bob books are okay, but use those sparingly.

I know this is just a basic overview, so ask questions if needed.

That’s a typical approach to teaching reading that probably works for many students, but unfortunately it didn’t help my child who was really struggling. So if that more conventional approach isn’t working, I would say try the other resources mentioned by PPs and really read and understand the introduction. She’s now a fluent above-grade level reader.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi, Kindergarten teacher here who uses a lot of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction and who also uses the best parts of balanced literacy.
For the parents who are saying they don't know what to do, here's a simple lay out:
1) Teach letter sounds. I start with sounds that match words they already know. For example, I teach that letter m says /m/ (not "muh"), that mom starts with the letter m and says "mmmmmmmmmom" really stretching out the first sound.
2) Read a LOT of alphabet books from the library to your kids. Put up simple print in the house (ie,labels on the box where you put the legos that has the word "legos", etc). Talk about letters when you read books or see signs, etc
3) Once a kid has a few letters (and maybe one vowel--always starting with the short vowels), say they know m, a, t, p, s....then model how to touch each letter and say each sound for "mat", "sat" etc. It can take kids a while to make the jump from knowing letter sounds to knowing how to blend sounds into words. It's also good to do this orally. For example, say the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ and then say "mat" to model how to do this. Do this daily for 1-2 minutes. You can also segment CVC words (say "mat" then say each sound in mat).

While you do this, teach your kids these sight words: I, a, the, see, can, go, like, to, love, am, he, she, is. Use phonics with those words too whenever you can. Even for "the", one can use the /th/ sound to at least sound out the first two letters. Write simple sentences for them to read with these sight words and some CVC words. (I see the cat. He is my dad.)

Once a kid can easily decode CVC words, add more sight words (google kindergarten sight words, teach 1-2 new ones per week and speed up as needed). Then go onto blends and digraphs (ch, th, wh, sh, bl, pl, st, etc with words with short vowels--shot,chip, plan, etc)

Once they have these, start teaching long vowels.

Starfall.com in the kindergarten section has some fun letter sound and CVC reinforcement. Lalilo is okay too.
Bob books are okay, but use those sparingly.

I know this is just a basic overview, so ask questions if needed.

This is really great, thank you. One follow up question- at what point do they start learning the blends/digraphs in school? The benchmark books on the chrome book contain sone fairly complex words but they are definitely still in the CVC phase.

And I think I need to find a YouTube video to make sure I pronounce them correctly, lol.

[Anonymous]

Sorry I meant my child can really only sound out CVC words but the benchmark books contain a lot beyond sight words and CVC words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Glad to hear MCPS is moving away from phonics. This article from todays New York Times is another sign that balanced literacy approach was a disaster.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/22/us/reading-teaching-curriculum-phonics.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes&fbclid=IwAR17AZykPVrMtcNOT3PXryqY-JUoslbR2NpGNs8_-9LmlIXt4RCfUkO8EZY

It makes my blood boil... Professor Calkins does not believe she has anything to apologize for....And, she asked, shouldn’t the phonics-first camp apologize? “Are people asking whether they’re going to apologize for overlooking writing?” she said.

Unfortunately MCPS, is still going to be doing a Balanced Literacy and Structured Literacy Hybrid for the foreseeable future. If the Lower School Reading thread on the Private Board is accurate, there are only a few schools in the whole region who truly use structured literacy.

+1
Calkins's comment makes my blood boil.

but what also makes my blood boil is why it took decades of poor performance for only a sliver of schools to start to recognize how ineffective the balanced literacy approach is. year after year after year, less than half the students are on grade level with reading.

Sounds like we're getting the best of both worlds!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, Kindergarten teacher here who uses a lot of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction and who also uses the best parts of balanced literacy.
For the parents who are saying they don't know what to do, here's a simple lay out:
1) Teach letter sounds. I start with sounds that match words they already know. For example, I teach that letter m says /m/ (not "muh"), that mom starts with the letter m and says "mmmmmmmmmom" really stretching out the first sound.
2) Read a LOT of alphabet books from the library to your kids. Put up simple print in the house (ie,labels on the box where you put the legos that has the word "legos", etc). Talk about letters when you read books or see signs, etc
3) Once a kid has a few letters (and maybe one vowel--always starting with the short vowels), say they know m, a, t, p, s....then model how to touch each letter and say each sound for "mat", "sat" etc. It can take kids a while to make the jump from knowing letter sounds to knowing how to blend sounds into words. It's also good to do this orally. For example, say the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ and then say "mat" to model how to do this. Do this daily for 1-2 minutes. You can also segment CVC words (say "mat" then say each sound in mat).

While you do this, teach your kids these sight words: I, a, the, see, can, go, like, to, love, am, he, she, is. Use phonics with those words too whenever you can. Even for "the", one can use the /th/ sound to at least sound out the first two letters. Write simple sentences for them to read with these sight words and some CVC words. (I see the cat. He is my dad.)

Once a kid can easily decode CVC words, add more sight words (google kindergarten sight words, teach 1-2 new ones per week and speed up as needed). Then go onto blends and digraphs (ch, th, wh, sh, bl, pl, st, etc with words with short vowels--shot,chip, plan, etc)

Once they have these, start teaching long vowels.

Starfall.com in the kindergarten section has some fun letter sound and CVC reinforcement. Lalilo is okay too.
Bob books are okay, but use those sparingly.

I know this is just a basic overview, so ask questions if needed.

,,,
This is really great, thank you. One follow up question- at what point do they start learning the blends/digraphs in school? The benchmark books on the chrome book contain sone fairly complex words but they are definitely still in the CVC phase.

And I think I need to find a YouTube video to make sure I pronounce them correctly, lol.

I start teaching blends after winter break. Some of the bench mark books being used aren't imo, great for beginners. It's really tricky finding appropriate texts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, Kindergarten teacher here who uses a lot of phonics and phonemic awareness instruction and who also uses the best parts of balanced literacy.
For the parents who are saying they don't know what to do, here's a simple lay out:
1) Teach letter sounds. I start with sounds that match words they already know. For example, I teach that letter m says /m/ (not "muh"), that mom starts with the letter m and says "mmmmmmmmmom" really stretching out the first sound.
2) Read a LOT of alphabet books from the library to your kids. Put up simple print in the house (ie,labels on the box where you put the legos that has the word "legos", etc). Talk about letters when you read books or see signs, etc
3) Once a kid has a few letters (and maybe one vowel--always starting with the short vowels), say they know m, a, t, p, s....then model how to touch each letter and say each sound for "mat", "sat" etc. It can take kids a while to make the jump from knowing letter sounds to knowing how to blend sounds into words. It's also good to do this orally. For example, say the sounds /m/ /a/ /t/ and then say "mat" to model how to do this. Do this daily for 1-2 minutes. You can also segment CVC words (say "mat" then say each sound in mat).

While you do this, teach your kids these sight words: I, a, the, see, can, go, like, to, love, am, he, she, is. Use phonics with those words too whenever you can. Even for "the", one can use the /th/ sound to at least sound out the first two letters. Write simple sentences for them to read with these sight words and some CVC words. (I see the cat. He is my dad.)

Once a kid can easily decode CVC words, add more sight words (google kindergarten sight words, teach 1-2 new ones per week and speed up as needed). Then go onto blends and digraphs (ch, th, wh, sh, bl, pl, st, etc with words with short vowels--shot,chip, plan, etc)

Once they have these, start teaching long vowels.

Starfall.com in the kindergarten section has some fun letter sound and CVC reinforcement. Lalilo is okay too.
Bob books are okay, but use those sparingly.

I know this is just a basic overview, so ask questions if needed.

,,,
This is really great, thank you. One follow up question- at what point do they start learning the blends/digraphs in school? The benchmark books on the chrome book contain sone fairly complex words but they are definitely still in the CVC phase.

And I think I need to find a YouTube video to make sure I pronounce them correctly, lol.

I start teaching blends after winter break. Some of the bench mark books being used aren't imo, great for beginners. It's really tricky finding appropriate texts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone concerned about their child not reading in k or 1st, or deciding well in 2nd or above you can easily buy quality phonics programs and teach your child yourself. Some good programs are
All About Reading
Abecedarian
If your child just needs some review here are 10-15 minute programs that you just open a book and go:
Dancing Bears reading (a British program synthetic phonics)
Phonics Pathways

Spend 10-15 minutes every day over the summer working with your child. It will make a huge difference
If you aren’t able to force yourself to do it and you need an external push then Kumon reading is phonics based and your child is required to do 10-15 minutes a day every day.

That is OK for parents who realize that there is a problem..But MCPS should be providing basic high quality instruction to our students, and especially students whose parents don't have the free time to float around on these boards, buy supplemental instructions, and teach the kids themselves.

+1. This. Most working parents don't have that kind of time and a lot don't know what they should be doing. Not everyone knows how to teach. I am ESL myself and I have no idea what to do.

Raises hand. I can tell my kindergartner is struggling with reading even though he gets Ps across the board on the report card. I would gladly spend 10-15 per day helping to teach him to read if I understood WHAT to do. He gets frustrated so easily and is resistant to trying to read with me, so one misstep on my end and we’d only get 1 minute into the 10-15 minutes. I just feel lost.

The programs that were listed are for parents. They tell you what to do and say. You could also sign your child up for Kumon reading for around $150 a month. They would go twice a week to the center and do a packet at home the other days. Plenty if parents are paying that much for swim lessons or ballet lessons. Learning to read is more important. Kumon teaches phonics and sight words.