I felt it was a good idea to just put down on the page where we are currently up to in our play-based space with literacy development.
I feel like I have learned so much in the last two years, but particularly in the last year regarding literacy acquisition.
If you have followed my blog you will know that we have been on a journey with reading. Embracing decodable books and individual reading a few years ago now. The use of decodable books came about after a search for books that would cater for year 4 boys and their 'lower levels' but also inspire them to read. To do that we discovered project x code by Oxford and we have not looked back!
Project X made a real difference! You can find them and the superhero series along with Alien adventures through:
Decodable's are not cheap though, but we have topped up our supplies through SMART KIDS with some other titles. I am really looking forward to the Ministry books soon to come out, however I am worried that they are not fully decodable.
You can read more about the beginnings of my journey in past blog posts.
Due to the success of Project X we introduced decodable books into new entrant room and since have worked hard to raise the money to spread these throughout the school. I love decodable books so much, I wouldn't use anything else!
This was the video that really propelled me forward to find out more, to deeply understand how the brain really learns to read.
It is important to understand though that this is still done within a framework of developmentally appropriate teaching and play. Children still work through developmental goals, but after working memory, we have woven a much more robust process around phonological and phonetic understandings (alphabetic principle.)
This has really come about because of my interest in how children actually learn to read and what I can do as a classroom teacher for those that seem to have further barriers. Work on phonological understandings has allowed me to develop simple interventions early if there appears to be something more going on for the child. The individualised, fluid nature of our class allows me to do this.
So our developmental goal sheet (up to year 3) looks like this now:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RbCDuYVN38w7-nr2PFEl_ADX-SdHltIXDREdqbbNxsg/edit?usp=sharing
As you can see this is informed by the code, if you are interested in this you can find out more at https://lizkaneliteracy.co.nz/ it truly is transforming practice across our whole school.
I am passionate about learning more about dyslexia and have always had the understanding that what we do for dyslexic children benefits all, however my past understandings around what dyslexia is and isn't have been skewed. My past perception of dyslexia was that it was a visual problem and children would present with reversals and talk about the print bouncing off the page.
In fact, dyslexia is not about that at all and I urge you to follow Learning Matters if you want to find out more.
Through using the code (and we have only scratched the surface) I am able to embed practice that benefits the whole class, and am developing my skills to work explicitly with individuals on exactly what it is that they need. I feel like I really understand the process.
Decodable books have been a god send for us. Each book builds on the last and allows me to systematically teach next steps. Children are actually reading, not guessing and feeling empowered in doing so.
The link to spelling has also been a lightbulb moment for me, understanding that encoding and decoding are intricately linked is vitally important. I realised I had been allowing children to 'invent' spelling too long, without teaching specific spelling patterns that they needed to know before forming bad habits.
Reading sessions with children are now catering for multi-sensory needs and linked to not only building and manipulating words, but also spelling sounds.
I work on the principal of I do, we do, you do. Lots of practice, lots of revisiting.
There is so much out there in terms of developing further that I admit to feeling quite overwhelmed at times, but I am so happy with the journey that we are on, and feel so much more confident in sharing next steps with our parents that are actually research based.
We don't do six year nets and we don't do reading recovery we have not had reading recovery for many years now. These two approaches simply don't work for everyone. We do use our developmental goals for next steps and reporting and we do use the code to support our next steps with reading. We do use programmes like Stepsweb to benefit our year 3 and 4 learners who need extra support and we do use Nessie reading if needed as well. We do use project x code which is decodable and we are spreading decodable books throughout the school. We do communicate regularly with parents on next step goals that can directly assist progress and we are sharing information on how children learn to read with parents. As a staff we want to be able to proficient enough with the Science of reading to ensure we are meeting the needs of our children in class, not relying on one to one interventions further down the track. Our goal is to all have awareness that something is not right, early on. We want to have a depth of understanding that allows us to gather useful information on that specific child and any barriers they have. We want a culture that accepts dyslexia exists and a culture that understands that what we do for dyslexic children, benefits all. We want to have empathy for these needs and be able to take informed action based on identified strengths. Using seesaw we aim to ensure communication is clear and useful. I am working on making videos for parents of myself working with their child, so they specifically know how they can help in easy bite size amounts.
There is so much out there but...
Here are some go to videos that have really shaped my practice recently:
These are amazing!
https://www.readingrockets.org/shows/reading-interventions
The simple view of reading...a must watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=BhpHr3SC7hk&feature=emb_logo
And two must watch videos on orthographic mapping that started our whole staff thinking!
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