Reaching ALL Readers (Sight, Phonics and other Approaches)

I've spent a good deal of my adult life guiding, supporting and helping others find the joy and wonder in the printed word.  Sometimes, learning to read appears to happen like magic; however, there were years of experiences that serve as a foundation to the miracle of reading! 

Sometimes, learning to read is hard; however, if parents and teachers carefully analyze a student's relative strengths and needs, all students can learn to read.    

For many students, the "need" is opportunities to learn the phonetic code.  Programs like Fundations have made their fortune out of teaching the code.  Learning the complex ways that sounds can work in English offers all of us the means to read words and ideas we do not yet know.  While that may not seem like something we need, it does allow us to read scientific terms as well as names and the ideas of others outside of our experiences.  Some findings suggest students with language, speech and articulation difficulties, including apraxia of speech, may benefit from this type of approach.

Yet for other students, the need is opportunities to learn a fund of sight words.  There is some research that suggests diverse students benefit from structured sight based approaches. Students with Downs Syndrome as well as students with significant hearing/speech/articulation difficulties may benefit from a fund of sight words that can serve as a base for their own understanding of the code. I wrote about some of that research in this article http://journals.cec.sped.org/tecplus/vol5/iss3/art3/
Other students just find comfort in the predictable and repeated words that are found in sight word based programs such as these.

Some readers benefit from Language Experience approaches too!
Someresources to think about as we all prepare to return to school and face the need to teach ALL children to be readers!

• http://journals.cec.sped.org/tecplus/vol5/iss3/art3/
• http://pridelearningcenter.com/2013/01/29/childhood-apraxia-of-speech-and-reading-help/
• http://ereadingpro.com/ProductSeries-IWLD.htm
• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3251281/
• Supporting Individuals with Down syndrome and other ... - DSAW
• www.dsaw.org/Data/Sites/3/media/resources/peer.../a11took-kit.pdf
• READING PROGRAMS/HELPFUL WEBSITES ... and for older non-verbal children ... grades 1-3 and 4-6 with games, sight words, teacher links, kids links and

• http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/349/practice-349.pdf
• [PPT] Teaching Reading to Children with Down Syndrome 
• www.dsgsemi.org/pdf/TeachingReadingtoChildrenwithDS08.ppt 

• Providing Effective Literacy Instruction to Students With Down ...

  www.bsnpta.org/.../VOL.36NO.4MarApr2004_TEC_Al_Otaiba36-4.pdf

Joy, an update

I've tried to do the OLW Challenge from TWT before, but until this year and I have never shared my word. This year, "my word came to me!" (as I shared in January) and I bravely decided it would be a public GOAL even if I failed in my journey to live with JOY in my heart. 

Some days it's been tough.
I could never have imagined that when those speed bumps of life popped into my path that that I would make an effort to find a way to hold onto JOY. Even when I have been worried-beyond-belief about others. Even when I have been mad-as a hornet at others.  Even when I have cried those silent tears of frustration, sadness, worry. Even when my prayers were heard, but not answered in exactly the way I would have wanted.  It hasn't been easy to choose joy every day.  Some days, it would have been MUCH easier to choose "Mad-As-Hell and Not Taking This Any More"  but I have tried to focus on choosing JOY amid the fears and tears. 
Some days it's easy.
I could never have imagined, back in January, that I would be celebrating a new pup in our family!    
I could never have imagined, back in January. that I would be planning to cap off the year with a big, joyous, dress-up, once in a lifetime type celebration of life!
Some day, it's surreal.   
I could never have imagined the POPE, of all people, would be talking about MY OLW!  SERIOUSLY, I almost lost my lunch when I read that HE said in a recent speech, that the secret to JOY was:

1. “Live and let live.” 

2. “Be giving of yourself to others.” 

3. “Proceed calmly” in life. 

4. “A healthy sense of leisure.” "art, literature and playing together with children"

5. "Sundays should be holidays." 

6. "Find jobs for all." “Dignity from one’s own labor"

7. Respect and take care of nature. 

8. Stop being negative. 

9. Don’t proselytize; respect others’ beliefs. 

10. Work for peace. 

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1403144.htm

Perhaps he reads my blog?

How to live and work effectively

 I'm a support teacher, 

Sharing classrooms and students.

I observe, I reflect

Thoughts on sticky notes.

Here are a few

That appear to impact

How to work effectively with

And live happily with

People

Laugh, Smile

Be fair, Be kind

Be nice

Share

Don't boast

Think before you react

Protect, Trust

Respect property

Respect ideas

Respect words

Clean up after yourself

Admit when you are wrong

Overlook when others are wrong

Forgive and forget

Be patient

After I wrote this list, 

I thought it sounded kind of familiar

....it was!  

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten 

    

A Survival Guide for New Teachers - - Education Week Teacher

A Survival Guide for New Teachers - - Education Week Teacher

Taking over the faculty meeting, one idea at a time.

Over MOST of my career, I have seriously dreaded faculty meetings.  To sit and listen, at the end of a long day, to upcoming events and calendar items, in a stuffy room when there is SO much you need to do back in your room is just plain hard.  Plus , we are usually hungry, thirsty, need to find the rest room and have to call at least one parent! 
In recent years, it has been clear that my own administrators are trying to revamp faculty meeting time into real, valuable PD sharing opportunities. It certainly seems like the movement is not just in my building and flipped as well as creative use of those 10 hours a year seems to be more common than in past years.
@LisaMeade23 who blogs at http://msprincipal23a.blogspot.com/2014/08/faculty-meeting-smackdowns.html
is certainly leading the way with her "faculty meeting smackdown" idea!

Now, truth-be-told, the idea of a smackdown scares me as we should be working together not "knocking down an opponent in a wrestling competition!"  Yet, we are a competitive lot.  We all want to do our best and to be at the top of the heap so putting a competitive spin on things does get our blood flowing.  

Lisa's idea was to have teachers sign up for 2-5 minute slots sharing ideas with their peers.  It sounds so simple and yet so profound at the same time.  It forces us (teachers) to look reflectively and critically at what we do well.  It forces us to think about our strengths and areas where we can grow.  If forces us to look inside and outside our rooms.  

If we were to do this in MY SCHOOL THIS YEAR, I would run like a mad woman to the sign up sheet and be eager to share how TWITTER, this wild and crazy medium of internet travel, has been the VERY BEST FORM OF PD I could have ever envisioned.  

close reading: snippets and resources

So, I've developing a grad course....and searching for resources.  Just in case this might interest a reader or two, I am sharing.  CLOSE READING RESOURCES 

http://www.learninga-z.com/commoncore/close-reading.html
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec12/vol70/num04/Closing-in-on-Close-Reading.aspx
http://www.mhecommoncoretoolbox.com/close-reading-and-the-ccss-part-1.html
http://www.teachingthecore.com/close-reading-common-core-2/
http://www.achievethecore.org/ela-literacy-common-core/sample-lessons/close-reading-exemplars
http://www.teachingthecore.com/non-freaked-out-common-core-close-reading/
http://iteachicoachiblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/five-simple-close-reading-strategies.html
http://www.commoncorereadinglessons.com/
http://www.teachability.com/community/cc/blog/2012/02/22/close-reading-a-topic-of-lively-discussion-among-teachers

Flipping: Why?

http://www.npr.org/2012/12/07/166748835/more-teachers-flipping-the-school-day-upside-down

The FLIPPED classroom and FLIPPED faculty meeting model has gotten LOTS of press lately!  It's an interesting phenomena....and yet it is the model we have used in colleges for many years.

While change is hard for ALL of us......there is something to think about in this model.    

August in Snippets

It's clearly August.

Lots of birthdays, joy,

(18+ family, friends)

The sunsets are earlier, powerful,

Garlic is hanging, waiting,

School supplies fill Walmart

Expecting, hopeful,

My "in box" is filled with images:

So inviting, exciting,

        

Sometimes, however, 

I wonder 

Where are the fire inspectors!
         

Sol 2014 Google Chrome Gets Confused

I suspect its not just me, but Google Chrome has been watching me.... Images pop into my social media feed that are the same or sometimes similar to where I have searched!  I must admit that all this makes me think of the George Orwell book, 1984!  At times it is helpful and at other times, I wonder if I should evacuate from social media and save my privacy! The other day, the juxtaposition of images was one to remember!
                                                    
First up was a link to a site about picking garlic.  It's time to harvest those beauties but many of ours still had green stems; thus I had Googled to find out what others thought we should do! I was actually glad to scoot over to this site, again, http://awaytogarden.com/the-tricky-matter-of-when-to-harvest-garlic/ and read about their harvest!  I decided to "follow" the site as it might come in handy again.  PS We decided it was time to pick the garlic - a messy but fun job!

                                                      

The next image was a link to an Oscar de la Renta dress at Bergdorf Goodmans.  I have never worn (and will never wear) a dress anything like this (even in my dreams) and I've never been to Bergdorfs - not the site nor the store!!  However, I recently went to the Nordstrom's site (perhaps that is the "poor" cousin) and looked at some dresses that were nice, and pretty fancy at least by the standards of this teacher-weekend-garlic-harvester, but not in the same league as this O-de-la-R number!! I laughed out loud as I thought, "Google Chrome, you are confused this time!"  The dress is a $11,900.00 (OMG!)!  I was looking for something under the $119.00 price point!  . http://www.bergdorfgoodman.com/Oscar-de-la-Renta-Sleeveless-Embellished-Ball-Gown/prod98300008/p.prodOscar de la Renta G  

Now I might have just laughed this event off, but then I noticed that Stacy had pinned the same image with a remark about wearing it in her dreams and wondered if Google Chrome was targeting teachers?  If so, then Google Chrome is really confused! Seriously, Google Chrome, you need to know:

                                  

                                           NO TEACHER has that kind of money....
                                                       Specially not in August!   

PS If I had THAT kind of money, I would give the money (not the dress) to my son, a teacher, as a birthday present :)  

Planning another trip

Last summer, 

We rode 25 miles on bikes,

Burned a quarter-zillion calories (more or less)

Basked in the lush, green scenery.

This summer,

We came back for an eating tour,

Consumed a half-zillion calories (more or less),

Noticed the green scenery, again.

This winter,

We're coming back

To consume the other half 

(of the zillion calories)

 And to celebrate,

It's light and bright,

Sometimes white, 

And full of joy, here!