Road Trip: How to foster the early writer’s developmentPilot –V/CV “Photo” –light Photograph Photographer photosynthesis. Introduce the Spelling Pattern by Choosing Words

Road Trip: How to foster the early writer’s developmentMichelle BencePatricia Gillespie NobleAnna Ramzy

Created by Bence, Gillespie Noble & Ramzy, 2017

Writing is a Road Trip!

Engaged, competent writers & great writing

product!

The process of learning to express your ideas!

What do we need to ensure a successful

journey?Created by Bence, Gillespie Noble & Ramzy, 2017

Where It All Began….

What was the real issue?

Reluctance to write

Limited ideas on

page

Frustration & anxiety


What Needs to Happen When We Write?

We start with an idea as an image

Find words to describe it

Break words into sounds

Turn sounds into letter representations

Turn letters into muscle movements

Organize into meaningful sentences

Idea Generation Phonemic

Awareness

Phonics

Printing Organization

Vocabulary


Working Memory During Writing

Holding Capacity Processing Capacity


Holding Capacity Decreases & Processing Capacity Increases




Holding Capacity Decreases & Processing Capacity Increases


Keys To Writing Instruction

TEXT STRUCTURE

PRE-WRITING

VOCABULARY

SPELLING

PRINTING

Kindergarten & Grade 1 development of

foundational skills

If we want them to be good writers we need to help them automatize those lower level skills


Looking to Where Our Journey Will Take Us…


Preparing for the Journey…

Printing

SpellingOrganization

Early Writing


Creating Automaticity with Printing


Automaticity = Flow Perfect Printing


• Letter formationextremely inconsistent

• Sizing somewhat inconsistent

• Alignmentinconsistent

Let’s Try It – Printing in Flow


Readiness Skills

Printing Mastery

Kindergarten Grade One

Where Do We Start?

Printing Continuum


Where Do We Begin…

Are they ready for the trip? What skills are they bringing to kindergarten?


Directionality: An Accidental Discovery

Vertical, Horizontal & Diagonal Positions

They are now read to print letters!They are now

ready to trace letters and numbers!


The Games Children Play?Lacing cards

Pick up sticks

Jacks

Marbles

Jigsaw puzzles

Spool Knitting

Paper dolls

Cutting cards

Colouring books

Painting by numbers

Lite Brite

Lego

Spirograph

Playdough with garlic press

Monkey bars

Painting on Easel

Bouncing Balls

Skipping


Time to Play…


Focusing on readiness skills is time well spent!

d b p q

Dd Bb Pp QqSliding down the alphabetCreated by Bence, Gillespie Noble & Ramzy, 2017

Shape Constancy Vs. Directionality

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKLhf6ANQ8

A focus on…• Attention to detail

http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/learning-lounge/mat-man-world/meet-mat-man

Building Cognitive Readiness: Parts of a whole

Mat Man Song Created by Bence, Gillespie Noble & Ramzy, 2017

https://shopping.hwtears.com/product/SING/products-by-type

https://shopping.hwtears.com/product/SING/products-by-type

Building a Foundation for Writing!


Developmental Sequence: Instruction should be systematic…


Excerpt from Handwriting Without Tears

Ready to Write!

Lower Case Letter Groupings – Based on Formation


Excerpt from Handwriting Without Tears

Tips For First Grade Writers

• TEACH (explicit) handwriting daily (20 min. day for 80 days)

• Model, model, model

• Consistent verbal cues

• Eagle Eyes (centres not effective)

• Small tools for small hands

• Second round after Spring Break


Keep On Truckin’!


Word Study


http://www.pitt.edu/~cek59/anythinggoes

Why Word Study Helps Ensure a Successful Journey


Knowledge of common words frees up

working memory

Build automaticity to increase

transference

Word study instruction increases

risk taking

Destination

Hi, My Name is Jack…


Understand words are made

of smaller units of sound

Strong knowledge of letter sound

associations


Where Do We Start?

Spelling Continuum


Studying a Word Involves…


Word Knowledge

Phonemic Awareness

Letter-Sound

Connection

Common Spelling Patterns

Insightinto word meaning

What do we need for our journey?



It’s the Necessities that Make the Journey!


What it is and what it isn’t!

Oral language construct

Learned informally

Phonological Awareness Progresses through

stages

Final stage

Phonemes Smallest unit of sound

× Letter recognition

× Print based construct

× Attaching sounds to symbols

× Phonics


Phonemic Awareness

How Do You Teach Phonemic Awareness?

• The Continuum

• Orally through song, rhyme, movement, stories, games

• Short Mini Lessons - embed into a read aloud, center time, guided reading, exploration


Isolating Blending Segmenting Deleting Substitution

Beginning To Pack That Car

Old McDonald had a Farm

Alliteration

Phoneme Pushing

Movement

Paying the Troll


Now We Are Ready For “F”onics…

Once students have developed strong phonemic awareness and letter recognition they are ready to put the two of them together.

Letter recognition

Print based construct

Attaching sounds to symbols


Now We Are Ready to Motor On to the Next Stop…


Words Their Way

Understanding of spelling patterns increases attempts at words

Letter - Sound Connections


Guess What? – There’s a Developmental Continuum


Alphabet/ Sound

• Matching letters to sounds

Pattern

• Patterns guide groupings of letters

Meaning

• Focus on morphemes (small units of meaning)

S a t = satFes = fish

Uv = of

Cape – CVCeRobber – VC/CV

Pilot – V/CV

“Photo” – lightPhotograph

Photographerphotosynthesis

Introduce the Spelling Pattern by Choosing Words to Sort


rain

sail

wait jay

day

gray

say

raid

The teacher determines How much scaffolding to give the student.

Letter Patterns

Multiple Activities With Word Sorts

Use follow up activities to reinforce generalizations and their memory of

words


Blind Sorts

Teacher Led Sort

Buddy Sort

Independent Sort

Writing Sort

Use follow up activities to transfer these spelling generalizations to their daily reading and writing


Word Hunt

Making Pattern

Lists

Developing Word Consciousness

Word Explosions

Morning Message

The Golden Rules for SpellingTeaching is not telling! (James, 1958)

• Students need to examine, manipulate and categorize words.

• Teachers need to make letter-sound & spelling patterns explicit

• Spelling is not grade level spelling - it is developmental • Use mistakes to diagnose teaching level (content not frequency)

• Use new content that is easily readable & in vocabularies

• Work with sound & sight (phonemic awareness)


Finding Those Special Places!


Organization of Early Writing

Organization

Idea Activation

VocabularyText

structure


Idea Activation - Moving from thought to language to print

• Young children need to work with concrete manipulatives • They can categorize but still need a tangible

object to connect their thoughts

• Touchstone

• Pictures help scaffold• organize ideas

• attach words

• turn to print

(Colello, 2014)


Pictures: A Bridge from Thought to Print Mobilizing Vocabulary

Wow, look at that

astonishing view!

Yeah, the scenery around

here is inimitable!


Drawing out Personal Vocabulary

• activates their words

• provides rehearsal time

• draws out details

• lowers anxiety

• fewer reluctant writers Created by Bence, Gillespie Noble & Ramzy, 2017

Two Types of Vocabulary

Personal Vocabulary

• Everyday words used to describe ideas

• Come from oral language

Academic Language

Words used to connect ideas

May be used orally, but more formally used in writing


Finding a Structure that Supports our Ideas


Building Text Structure

Structure tells our brain what type of ideas we need and where to put them.


18676024365911

Study this number for 10 seconds.

You will be asked to write this number


Write the entire number down…


Now organize the number this way…

•Canada’s birthday year

•Minutes/hours/days

•Emergency number


18676024365911

Study this number for 10 seconds.

You will be asked to write this number


Understand the Structure -Starting to lay the road work!


“Structure is the way something is constructed and organized”

Each structure has its own organization and certain features that help us to know what to expect.

Bungalow Two StoreySplit Level

Familiarity with story structure

Recognition that there is a

structure to all writing


Setting Them Up For Continued Success

Writing Structure Continuum


Narrative Sequence

First, Then, Last,


• Temporal sequence

• Descriptive language

• Time based signal words

Beginning Middle End

Scaffolding with PicturesDraw Pictures within the structure


Use Signal Words in Sentence Frames


Narrative Compare & Contrast

Different DifferentSam

e

All Writing Has a Map!

Middle

End

Beginning




Modeling with Mentor Texts

• Introduce a new picture book

• Reread an old favorite

• Teacher written material• Morning message

• An oral story

• A student sample


Structure &

Vocabulary

Annotating

This can be done orally for younger students

• Note the text structure

• Talk about important words in each part

• Make predictions based on the words

For young readers it is all about the highlighters and smelly markers!


Beginning the Writing ProcessChoosing our purpose dictates the structure:


Rural Urban

Fill in the idea map with points from the mentor text.

Organizing the Ideas on the Page!

INTRODUCTION

___________________ and _____________________ are alike in many ways.

How are they the SAME?

Both ______________________ and __________________________ are __________________________________________________.

How are they DIFFERENT?

However, ________________________ are _______________________ and ________________________ are ________________________. Anotherdifference is ___________.

END

In the end, both ____________________________________ and _______________________ are very ___________________________________________.

Rural Urban

From the idea map To the sentence frame



Class Made Anchor Charts Signal WordsDifferent

SameIn contrast

AlikeSame as

BothHoweverAlthough

Also

INTRODUCTION

Both

How are they the SAME?

How are they DIFFERENT?

End

Rural Urban

By Directly Teaching all the Parts of the Trip …we arrive safely at our destination with confident writers!

I know how to get my thoughts out of my head

I have some great ideas

I love this! I am an amazing

writer!

Others really like my ideas


A Successful Trip to our Destination!


Contacts

• Michelle Bence – [email protected]

• Patricia Gillespie Noble –[email protected]

• Anna Ramzy – [email protected]

Questions?


mailto:–[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Documents

Road Trip: How to foster the early writer’s developmentPilot –V/CV “Photo” –light Photograph Photographer photosynthesis. Introduce the Spelling Pattern by Choosing Words