FES Literacy Link

MJ Wright
782 German Flats Road Fayston, Vermont 05673
(802) 496-3636 ext. 108
mjwright@faystonelementary.org

Several years ago Thatcher Brook Primary School sent out an interesting perspective on why children should read every night. I have shared this with you in the past and would like to do so again. This is a message that can’t be stressed enough.

“Why Can’t I Skip My Twenty Minutes
of Reading Tonight?”

Let’s figure it out-mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights each week.
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night….or not at all!
Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week=100 minutes/week.
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week=20 minutes/week.
Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.
Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year.
Student A reads 3600 min, in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of 10 whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade, if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days. Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days. One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him or herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:

Which student would you expect to read better?

Which student would you expect to know more?

Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school?

When we talk about literacy instruction we are actually talking about several components that are all necessary skills for literacy development. These components are Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Comprehension and Vocabulary. It is important that a reading program offer instruction and integration of these components to be effective. As well, we know that writing is an integral part of a literacy program because of the reciprocity between reading and writing: you can’t have one without the other!

A less tangible component yet the most important in my mind is motivation. As with the development and maintenance of any skill, motivation to learn and maintain that skill is crucial to success. This is where the home connection is so helpful in reinforcing and supporting what we do at school. By modeling reading behaviors at home and making it a routine home activity you are sending the message to your child that reading is important. If you have any questions about literacy instruction or ideas about reading at home, please contact your child’s classroom teacher or me. We would be happy to discuss this with you.

I have the opportunity to spend an hour or two a month during lunch and recess with some highly motivated writers here at FES. Students from the upper grades are invited to join me for lunch to talk about writing. This group usually includes from 8 to 12 students. Our conversations include talking about each person’s writing goals and how they can achieve their goals, as well as sharing of current pieces of writing. Students who would like to share read what they have written and then get constructive feed back from the rest of us. It is so much fun to hear the exciting writing taking place at FES. As well, we have many students who have had their work published for others to read. This includes articles in The Tiger News, The Burlington Free Press’s Young Writers Project (also available online), and national writing contests.

The enthusiasm and motivation of these writers is so exciting. The chance to come together as a writers’ community once or twice a month is a wonderful way to celebrate their passion for writing. Check back here to look for some of their pieces!

If you have had a child at FES for at least a few years, you are probably pretty familiar with our many assessments. When we talk about assessments we are referring to the many tools we use to monitor a child’s progress in academic areas. These tools include ongoing informal classroom assessments as well as more formal testing.

In particular, we have many types of assessments we use to monitor our students’ reading development. These look different depending upon grade level. Just as a quick sample, we observe such skills as how a young child handles a book, their ability to name letters and letter sounds, how they are able to manipulate sounds that they hear as well as words that they know how to write. In slightly older children we monitor their sight word development, their accuracy and fluency as well as comprehension just to name a few areas. For second graders, more formal assessments are administered such as the VT-DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) which is required state wide to measure comprehension, accuracy and fluency. In grades three through six we have begun using the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Test, 4th Edition to monitor a student’s progress across those grades. As well, the NECAP (New England Common Assessment Program) is required by the state to measure reading skills as well as mathematics and writing depending upon grade level.

With all of these informal and formal tools, we are able to use the information gathered to help plan our reading instruction and to monitor a child’s progress as well as strengths and challenges in reading on an ongoing basis. Feel free to contact me or classroom teachers if you have any questions about these assessments.

Magazines, dictionaries, cookbooks, maps, phonebooks, reference books, menus, manuals, newspapers...to name a few.

Over the past few years there has been a focus on the role of Informational Text in the classroom. Often, these types of texts have been referred to as Nonfiction. A more specific term is Informational Text. which simply means any text form from which we can get information. This is in contrast to Narrative or Literary Text, which tells a story to its reader.

This past fall, the Vermont Dept. of Education reported that according to According to National Geographic School Publishing, 2003, 80% of the texts that adults read is informational, while 80% of the texts read in school are in the Literary or Narrative form. This tells us that we need to examine our classroom libraries as well as to make sure our students are receiving direct instruction in how to read Informational Text.

Think about how you, as an adult, read text types differently. When you are looking up something in a manual or a cookbook, you don’t read the whole book. First you might skim the Table of Contents or go to the Index to locate the information you need. This is quite different from how we read a Narrative Text in which you start in the beginning and read to the end. Students need to be taught the different features of Informational Text, how to locate them, identify them and take information from them.

Recently, I spent a few days with the First and Second Graders doing just that. We compared and contrasted Informational and Narrative Text and then identified many of the features of Information Text. The list is long: Table of Contents, photographs, captions, maps, diagrams, charts, illustrations, headings, bold fonts, changes in font type or size, keys, glossaries, etc. The students had several opportunities to work with different types of Informational Text to identify the many features. The student’s level of engagement is always high with Informational Text too. What young reader doesn’t enjoy learning about how a volcano erupts or how many teeth a shark has?

Please keep Informational Text in mind when you are at home. Ask your child to help you with a recipe or to find a phone number in the phone book. Read a magazine together or get a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records (always a hit!) to read. The more children interact with different text structures, the easier it will be for them to locate the information they need.