Welcome to our first attempt at blogging using the book club forum. I thought it would be quite interesting to locate as much information as we can about Isabel Beck the author of our book, before we begin the actual study. Let's Google her and post one new item. Please remember to post only one fact about Isabel Beck, and that you cannot post something that has already been said by another colleague.
I think this is really going to be a fun means of which to explore this book. We realize that the phonics program of study is designed for K, 1, and 2; however, all grade levels are encouraged to participate. Since the upper grades do not have the book, I am sure those of us with the book are more than willing to share. Please do not look at this blog as a task but rather a new experience.
Now, for my interesting fact: Isabel L. Beck has authored 36 books.
Dr. Beck is a recipient of the Oscar S. Causey Award for outstanding research from the National Reading Conference, and the International Reading Association’s William S. Gray Award for lifetime contributions to the field.
ReplyDeleteEl Camacho
Candi we cannot see your comment.
ReplyDeleteShe is a professor of education at the University of Pittsburgh where she is a Senior Scientist.She conducts reading research and teaches reading courses.
ReplyDeleteMary A. Gray
Isabel L. Beck has based her phonics strategies on vast teaching experience with multiple age levels from toddlers to adults.
ReplyDeleteShe has written over 100 articles!
ReplyDeleteBeck was an elementary school teacher before beginning her distinguished academic career.
ReplyDeleteDr. Beck had her first teaching experiences in urban school districts on the east coast and in southern California.
ReplyDeleteIsabel Beck believes that explicit, systematic phonics instruction is necessary. Because it is important not only to expose the beginning reader to the letter-sound relationship, but also to focus on all the positions in a word in which the target is found.
ReplyDeleteJ. Watson
ReplyDeleteIn her book, Beck not only shows the "how" of the suggested procedure, but also the "why".In other words, the ideas are descriptively as well as explanatorily presented.
Dr. Beck has truly led an interesting life; everything from being a teacher to being a scientist. I am sure we can all relate the most fulfilling position must have been that of an elementary school teacher.
ReplyDeleteTo move on with our study, Dr. Beck states that she develops strategies using many different means. She says, "Some... were developed by tinkering with existing ones, others by making an existing strategy more explicit and systematic, and others by combining two strategies." What methods do you use to develop new strategies to assist with teaching the standards.
Sometimes I feel like a scientist myself, "experimenting" with new methods and strategies in the classroom to teach the standards, then evaluating the resulting data to check effectiveness. This is most often a multi-step process, with many, many "tweaks" along the way. Students' enhtusiasm and attentiveness to the activity is as important,if not more so, than the initial grasping of the standard itself.
ReplyDeleteIsabel Beck worked for the military. That is where she had her first experience with teaching phonics.
ReplyDeleteCandie, I truly agree with you...it seems that each and everyday there are tweaks to be made.
ReplyDeleteOn page six the author recalls research that states, "Current research now offers persuasive evidence that children who get off to a slow start rarly become strong readers (Stanovich, 1986). I am thinking that of course she is referring to a slow start academically. Let's have some disscussion on this, I am interested in your thoughts.
A child's experiences prior to entering school are of utmost importance in determining whether he or she will be a "slow starter". Children exposed to a multitude of engaging conversations, activities, excursions and stories arrive with much larger vocabularies and much richer schemas than children who are lacking in these areas. This directly affects reading fluency and comprehension. For these "slow starters",building schema whenever possible is extremely important; perhaps as much or more than the phonics skills themselves.
ReplyDeleteIsabel Beck provides a very unique phonics instruction that is straightforward and concise.
ReplyDeleteYears ago I worked for High Scope Educational Research Foundation. I worked on a project designed to determine if students who went to private pre-schools were more successful in life than those who went to Head Start. The findings were that the actual school did not make a significant difference, however the social environment made the largest impact. Therefore, if the child was living in poverty during the pre-school years and the mother's level of education increased and they moved out of poverty, the child was more successful as an adult. If the family make-up and environment stayed the same, then the child basically stayed the same throughout life. The educational level of the mother played a great roll being that an educated parent was more likely to ensure her child also received an education, thereby giving the child more of an opportunity to be successful as an adult. To me this is saying that students whose mothers were not educated had a slow start; thereby, the students were not advid readers.
ReplyDeleteExcited about finally being able to join the blog.
ReplyDeleteI agree that a child's social enviroment makes a huge impact on the child's success in school. It is very important for children to have parental help at home.
ReplyDeleteMs. Beck also taught soldiers how to read. Also, when students begin to read and want to sound out words, it is ok to sound out with approximate sounds and not with exact sounds. They will get more proficient with practice. This is my first blog because I finally got in Yeah! My posts will get better.
ReplyDeleteYes the environment that a child lives in affects how he or she learns. However, if the child feels safe and secure he or she will still be very successful!
ReplyDeleteHello all, just joining the sight.
ReplyDeleteDoing a test to see if el put me in correctly.Will get back to you later, hopefully.
A student's home and school environment needs to be cohesive in order for the child to fully achieve success. If a child feels safe and home and not at school, or vice versa, then the may or may not perform at either location.
ReplyDeleteHi all, just trying to see if I can post my comments.
ReplyDeleteI think for our students to have the best start in life, we need someone of educational know-how to visit the new parents in the hospital. They can talk with the parents about what is truly benficial linguistically for their little bundle to not just survive, but thrive when they get to school. This may entail more students being enrolled in Head Start or just simple conversation. It's so important children hear more than "NO" all the time. They need their questions answered and nursery rhymes and finger plays done. It is something neighbors can get together and do. Book swaps, library cards, it's all free and my kids loved it growing up, especially the summer reading programs. They ate those up like it was a new toy.
ReplyDeleteI agree basic needs like food and safety need to be addressed first before anyone can learn. I think it's important for our parents to be made aware of the effects certain behaviors of theirs have on their children without pointing fingers I realize, or we lose them or make them mad. Either way we've lost them and no improvement happens.
ReplyDeleteOur Phonics Progression session today was really good. I had the opportunity of attending with the first and second grade teachers during the morning session. So, I know that the Kindergarten teachers also had an enlightening experience as well. In the session today we discussed 'Decoding and Encoding Words" (this can be found on page 19 of the book). I thought it would be a good if maybe we used our blog to share some of the decodable texts. Miss Moore shared two with me today, and here they are:
ReplyDeleteZack the Fox
Zack is a quick fox. He can zip in and out. He can zigzag in the thick grass.
Zack sees Kim the fox. Zack whacks Kim on the hand. That whack has Kim sick. Kim wants to whack Zack back. She does not whack Zack back. Kim was mad, but she is not now.
Zack the fox is now sad he did whack Kim. Kim pats his hand. Zack is not sad!!
Pam Wants a Sip
Mom is making soup for dad and Pam. Dad and Pam are sick. Pam wants to sip the soup first. She pats Mom on the hip. Pam nags mom when she taps her on the hip. Mom says Pam can sip the soup from the top of the pot. Mom pats Pam on the top of her head. Pam is happy to have a sip.
Good job Donessa! Now, come on everybody let's get writing. Place your decodable texts on our blog. Really exciting news...Kelly is going to join our blog. Yea!!!
This is a decodable story I wrote for "eigh", "ar", & "oo".
DeleteC. Aplin
Farming
I live in a rural neighborhood. Carlos says I live in the country. The fresh air rushing by with a whoosh feels good. I like to catch fish on a hook. Last Saturday I caught eight fish! We often park by the lake and start a bonfire with wood so we can cook the fish. Mama cooks while Martin plays the guitar. In the winter we ride down to the woods in a sleigh pulled by horses. We drink hot chocolate and look at the stars.
There are eighteen farms nearby. All the farms have barns with cows, goats and horses in them. My neighbors are all farmers. They drive tractors more often than cars. Mr. Alvarado’s cow blocked the gate yesterday and refused to move a foot! Mr. Alvarado shook his fist and threw a football at her, but she didn’t even look scared. It took Bart and Eduardo’s help to get the cow back to the barnyard.
Dayannara baked eighty cookies and put them in large jars to thank the men for their help. She loaded her freight into a cart and took them to their houses. That was a very neighborly thing to do! I love living on the farm!
This is my decodable text for "NG" and "ING" My kids and I came up with this text ;)
Delete"King Fink"
Once upon a time there was a King
who loved his queen so much
he brought her a ring.
She was so happy she started to sing
She danced around so much her ring
fell to the ground.
She watched as it rolled down and down.
She tried to run and catch it but it was river bound.
So she stopped and started to think
“how can I catch my ring before it sink?”
So she called on her husband King Fink
and he pulled her ring from the river Bank.
They lived happily ever after don’t you think!
My ugly Hair "AIR Sounds"
I hate my ugly hair. I think it is so unfair. I know my hair doesn’t shine and sway in the air; so, please don’t stop and stare.
It is so very scary. That’s why I wish I had a fairy. I would ask to be a millionaire to handle all of my affairs. I would buy a big, fancy house with lots of stairs. Then buy some long, shiny, silky hair!!
Wow Candi, this is really good. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHere is another decodable text/poem I created for vowels 'a', 'i', 'o','u'. R. Wilson
DeleteYou Can…
a,i,o,u(oo)
You can play with a rake. You can bake a fine cake. You can write the number nine. You can walk in a line. You can tame a huge mule. You can make a good rule. You can dig a big hole. You can chase a cute mole. You can tie with a rope. You can say "I'm broke." You can take a cube. You can squeeze a tube. You can smell a nice rose. And you can blow your runny nose.
You guys are really good. Pashion I like the idea that you and your students worked collaboratively to develop the final product. Remember, this is what we need to do...get the students involved in the teaching process.
ReplyDeleteGood job Rachel...thank you so much for sharing. I am sure others will borrow your text.
ReplyDeleteHere I am!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI have found an interesting website that offers both fiction and non-fiction decodable passages. It offers the passages in pdf and ppt so you can incorporate technology easily. I have been creating my own tailored to my students' needs of reinforcing sight words. I will put them on the share drive.
ReplyDeleteYou do have to 'join' the web site and it asks for donations, but you can say no and still join.
Kathy will you please place the link to this website on the Blog? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteRachel, I really like your text...that is so good. How are the students responding to the decoded texts that everyone is presenting?
ReplyDeleteThis is a test.
ReplyDeleteTesting.
ReplyDeleteI have used the decodable text that Kathy placed on the shared drive for kindergarten. My kids really liked it and responded well to it! Encoding and decoding is so hard for my students. Even my more advanced ones struggle with decoding. It seems that knowing the letter sounds is not enough. They have to "hear" the whole word when it is blended and for some this is a skill that comes later. It is sometimes a very painful process!
ReplyDeleteLet me try posting again.Guys check out this KDG Text we made up for letter "Z" and sight words. 1st Grade might use it for their slow learners.
ReplyDeleteZack the rat
can play in a box.
"Quick",said Zack,
"Push the box!"
Zip,Zap,Zoom!
Just like a fox.
Straight from the Classroom Publishers! Juran
I forgot to attach the links in my prior post.....I apologize. There are two:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Coll_kfasimpaur/Decodablepassages
http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Illustrated_Decodable_non-fiction_passages
I hope they offer some fresh ideas!
Kathy, thanks for the link; I am sure it will be useful.
ReplyDeleteJuran, that is so cute.
Cathie, I understand your problem, in our liturature, chapter 4, page 48, it states, "when children attempt to figure out a word by blending sounds it is not necessary for them to produce a perfect pronunciation, but rather be able to come up with an approximate pronunciation which they can refine by matching their pronunciation with a word they already know from the spoken language". I am also sure that Bederia can give you some suggestions in this area when she is here on Wednesday morning.
Hi all, just checking to make sure I on the blog again.
ReplyDeleteWe tried writing Valentine poems today in the form of decodable text... I'm surprised I have any hair left at all!
ReplyDeleteThe students really struggled with coming up with rhyming text which made sense. We were beginning to have some cute break-throughs at the end of the session, however. One student wrote, "You are all my friends, not my enemies. You are all very special to me." Another wrote, "You are not a fool. You are cool!" We will forge ahead tomorrow!
That was a wonderful idea Candi. Good way to tie the standard in with the holiday. My students did not have too much trouble coming up with the rhyming words. They just had alot of trouble making the rhyming words fit in their poem. Great Job!!
DeleteReferring to page 32, I have found using individual word pockets,for the beginning middle and ending sounds for my middle and low level groups are working well.Being that beginning and ending sounds seem differcult.
ReplyDeleteI like how 2nd grade tied writing poems for Valentine's Day in with students' writing their own form of decodable text. Remember to always model what you want students to do or write the poem/decodable text together. Then let them try on their own as another activity. I think that having students help write the decodable text is a wonderful idea. They are now beginning to take ownership of their learning. Way to go 2nd grade.
ReplyDeleteWe have been using decodable text for the last few weeks. The ones we have been using are on the share drive under K lesson plans. I think it is great how the students have responded to it. We have been using 1-2 per week and when we are done with the piece, we have it laminated and put in a three pronged folder for each student. Yesterday we incorporated writing as well by having them adding on to their piece. It gives them text they can have confidence in reading, plus they will have something to take home to read over the summer. I am anxious to see how it works using it at the beginning of next year.
ReplyDeleteMy students do try to matching their blended "words" to an actual word that they know! That makes the phonics assessment difficult when we come to the nonsense words.
ReplyDeleteKathy- the decodable text you have created is awesome. My kids love finding the words they know and are amazed at how many there are. They also experience real success and a confidence boost at having a piece of text that they can read and understand.
Okay everyone, conversations are happening. Now, I would like everyone to take a look at the 'Word Building' chapter. First, have any of you begun word building instructions/activities? If so, what have your experiences been?
ReplyDeleteI started doing word building years ago in second grade by following Patricia Cunningham's model for "Making Words". This year I have returned to the practice by using the white boards and dry erase markers. We use the previously taught phonemes to spell a word and then I instruct my students to "make the new word _______ by just changing one letter." They love being able to spell new words so easily and I always give them one ultra challenging word. It is amazing to see who will be able to get the really hard word.
DeleteChapter 5 gave me lots of ideas on working with my students on word building. I love the pocket charts for exchanging letters to make new words or the words I say. My students will give it all for the dry erase boards. They keep them so actively engaged.
DeleteAn ah ha moment for me was learning when Word Building to not focus on reinforcing the vowel sound, but to have students' attention on the consonants (initial/end) substituted to make new words. Reason being, all the words will have the same vowel, so there is little need to process that particular vowel. I guess the way we were engaging in letter substitution was the old school way. Isabel Beck suggests to put the focus on "what is a new or difficult phonics element(p.59).
ReplyDeleteI also like her suggestions of students keeping Word Building journals. (p.62) I think this is a valuable tool for students.
I am very grateful for the dry erase magnetic boards with pens, erasers and magnetic letters we received in our kits. These materials keep the students much more engaged than simply using pen and paper. They also make instant centers and peer pal stations. It's amazing how much can be learned while actually having fun! I also allow students to complete word building exercises in the Writer's Notebooks. They see these as "special" places to write, again becoming more engaged than with traditional notebook paper.
DeleteMy children also love the dry erase markers and whiteboards. They provide immediate feedback to the children. My children are much more motivated to try to build words when they only have to change a letter by erasing the whiteboard.
DeleteWord building is a good way to teach students analogies. Example: You know the word "book", the you know the word took.
ReplyDeleteMy students love the dry erase boards, too! The children love working with them and it helps keep them engaged!
DeleteBeck talked about how vocabulary words are characterized into three tiers. Some of the tiers duplicate the information to a greater or lesser extent than other. However, some of them are identical, but as a teacher, it helps to look through these to see what you can take from them:
ReplyDeleteI really liked Chapter 5 on Word Building. It gave me a lot of useful ideas and helpful hints on how to work with my students on word building. I plan to use my magnetic letters more to model how to build new words.
ReplyDeleteThis word building chapter gave me some wonderful ideas that I could implement during my phonics instruction. I like the way they gave us step by step instructions on how to present in a classroom setting..
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Ms. Wilson. This chapter did have alot of great information.I realized that Words Their Way helps supports decoding and word recognition; as well as, our daily Phonics instruction. I also liked how they devided the sequencing into four categories. Consonants, short vowels, consonant blends, and consonant diagraphs was just one of the categories listed, category "A." There is also category B, C, and category D. Teachers can use this to help you sequence the word building excercises instead of being all over the place. Great Stuff!!
ReplyDeleteA couple of years ago, during a Cornerstone lesson study, my students and I demonstrated a implicit phonics activity. Certain students were given letters on cards. Three students were called up to make a word. I called out a different word that would only change one letter (phoneme) in the first word. The students with the other letter cards had to be able to discriminate the word/phoneme/letter to determine which letter he/she would replace. This went on for a few rounds with new words/different letters. It was a great activity. However, now that I understand the concept word building, I realize that during that Cornerstone lesson study, that is exactly what we were doing. Mrs. Camacho, I just had an ah ha moment.
ReplyDeleteWe have really had excellent dialogue going on the last couple of days. I am so glad to hear that so many of you feel the chapter on 'Word Building' has been helpful. Now, lets move on to our last conversation.
ReplyDeleteIn the 'Epilogue' Dr. Beck stated she had three main focuses for this book:
1. She wanted to suggest ways the instructional strategies that she was writing about could be used in various classroom settings.
2. She wanted to emphasize the importance of becoming fluent when using the instructional procedures.
3. She wanted to underscore that decoding was necessary but not a sufficient condition for becoming a compentent reader.
Do you believe one, two, or all of this objectives were addressed and/or met? Next, in the 'Coming Full Circle' section she stated that she had 15 first graders at one time of who she knows she failed, but had she had this book at that time she would not have failed those students. Do you have any correlations to this?
Finally, I know each of you have a mammoth of duties and responsibilities that are being levied on you daily as just a component of your normal job of teaching children. As well, you have so many new initiatives being placed in your path, sometimes I know it is difficult to pick and choose what is useful and what is not. Sometimes strategies are presented to you in a manner that you feel you have no choice other than to implement everything. Please keep in mind that all strategies will not work with all students (they do not all wear the same size shoes). You have to use your professional knowledge and ability to differentiate instructions for your students to decide what is useful and what is not. This is one more tool for your tool box. I look forward to reading your last posts.
Hind sight is twenty-twenty. I know there are some children that could have been more adequately taught if I had known more strategies. I am glad the author admits that she could have done a better job as well. Phonics are an important part of instruction. However, it is not the only part needed to make fluent readers. It takes a combination of phonics, sight word recognition, and reading for comprehension. I am thankful that children are so resilient and can overcome obstacles. Even the obstacles that I created.
DeleteI believe Beck did a marvelous job of covering all three of her objectives. The objective which particularily resonated with me was her stress of the fact that decoding is not the end-all and be-all of reading. I have seen many, many students over the years (particularily ESOL students) who "sounded out" beautifully, without a clue as to the meaning of what was being read. They had mastered sound recognition and phonics rules, but not word recognition, let alone how to comprehend a sentence or a passage. Phonics skills are a very important part of learning to read, obviously, but certaintly not the only part of the puzzle. This book has helped me with my overall teaching of reading, as well as my phonics instruction.
DeleteI agree with Judy. I'm sure I have failed some students when it comes to teaching phonics. I had poor instruction in phonics as a child. However, I am learning more about phonics and how to teach it more effectively. Making Sense of Phonics has some excellent strategies. It is a great resource to use.
DeleteI believe all of the objectives were met....and what she said about the 15 students was oddly reassuring. As educators, we all strive to serve our students to the best of our ability and knowledge. Our ability and knowledge about our profession increases daily. We are therefore more effective with students year after year. I know that through program change, peer mentoring, and through learning from the students, I have been able to increase interest and rigor in learning. As I reflect on my first year, I too feel like those students did not receive the phonics (or overall) instruction that they deserved. I feel like resources such as this book have helped me become a better teacher. I hope to continue using resources to improve my craft-and to not reflect on prior years as failures, but rather steps in becoming a better educator. Making Sense of Phonics surely has provided strategies to assist me in that.
DeleteMy students love the dry erase boards,too. I was very successful in holding their attention.
ReplyDeleteMost of my students became fluent with the instruction procedures,used with this book.
ReplyDeleteDr. Beck did a good job in covering the instructional strategies in her book. I agree with Judy. Phonics are an important part of instruction in teaching children to become fluent readers.However, it does take a combination of phonics, sight words, comprehension and fluency.
ReplyDeleteMarie Clay taught us that reading is constantly balancing your visual information, with meaning and structure. Leaning too heavily on one of these strategies is often at the detriment of the other. Students need to be constantly making sense out of what they read. Their internal talk should be "does that look right, does that make sense, and would we say it that way?" Phonics plays a primary role when students are using their visual cues. It is helpful. I agree with my colleagues when they say that it is not the only skill required.
ReplyDeleteThere are many students (much more than 15) that I feel I have failed. To this day I wonder about past students. I am already concerned about those that will leave me this year. However, I do agree with Kathy. It is "oddly reassuring" to know that a expert, such as Dr. Clay, recognizes and admits the same failure. It does take time to become an expert at anything and I know that my time of feeling I have failed my students is drawing to an end.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with what others have said about phonics not being the means to an end. This is one component in taking our students to the level of being skillful readers. However, in my opinion, it is a very powerful component if used correctly. Many of our students are on grade level and beyond in their comprehension of text that is read to them. The problem lies in that they don't have the necessary skills to balance the visual information, meaning, and structure of the text independently.
I believe Beck met her three phonics objectives. Phonics is definitely an important part in reading instruction. Implementing Beck's phonics strategies was beneficial to my students. I can say that various parts (ex: phoneme segmentation) were most helpful to my hearing impaired student. Students who struggle or have different reading disabilities benefit from explicit phonic instruction.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Dr. Beck did an excellent job of covering her main objectives. I had no phonics instruction as a child and did not become familiar with phonics instruction until I became a first grade Para. Even then I struggled with helping students decode because I was learning along with them. (Luckily, most of the students were fluent readers or already had sufficient decoding skills in place and the Houghton Mifflin series the district had adopted at the time was very helpful for me because it had explicit, systematic instructions for decoding). I could have greatly benefited from Dr. Beck's book way back then.
ReplyDeleteBecause of my limited background with phonics instruction,I was glad to to see that Dr. Beck realizes that decoding is not a sufficient condition for becoming a good reader. Dr.Beck confirmed for me that we as teachers need to also focus on students' speaking, listening and comprehension development. Often, we are so glad our students are reading (calling words) we don't focus on their understanding what they are reading,building "sophisticated" vocabulary, and allowing them to talk about their ideas/stories. A balanced approach is essential.
Looking back over the years I'm sure there were many students that I failed. In college I received NO phonics training and was instructed in the whole language method. Reading is not a "one size fits all" science and I'm sure there were many students for whom whole language just didn"t fit. I think this book is an excellent resource that I will continue to use. I think that my students this year have made the most gains in their reading due, in part, to the new phonics program we have in place.
ReplyDelete