RICA Subtest 1

Phonological Awareness

Understanding that speech is made up of sounds. A child can manipulate sounds within words (NO letters)

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sounds

# of Phonemes in the word fox

4 ( /f/ /o/ /k/ /s/) x= /k/+/s/

Phonemic Awareness

The ability to manipulate and distinguish the phonemes in a spoken word (NO letters present)

(ex. A student saying that duck has 3 sounds (/d/ /u/ /k/) is being phonemically aware

Grapheme

letters that represent phonemes (Ex. fox has 4 phonemes, but 3 graphemes f-o-x) (Ex. the /k/ sound (phoneme) in duck is ck, which is the grapheme)

Alphabetic principle

an understanding that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken words.

What ideas are under the Umbrella Term Phonological awareness?

onset-rime, syllables, rhyming/alliteration, words in sentences, phonemic awareness

What Ideas are under phonemic awareness ?

SOUND: blending, segmenting, isolating, adding, deleting, and subtracting

Phonics

Refers to instruction in how letters and sounds correspond to each other and how sound-letter correspondence can be used to decode and pronounce words in text (LETTERS present)

Word awareness

knowing that individual words make up a sentence
"A brown cat jumped over the car." has 7 words

syllable awareness

Students clap hands as they say each syllable in a word. Easier if pronunciation of the syllables is distorted and said slowly/distinctly.

Word Blending

Taking 2 single-syllable words and combining them to make a compound word (cow and boy = cowboy)

Onset and Rime

In a syllable, the onset is the initial consonant or consonants, and the rime is the vowel and any consonants that follow it (ex., the word sat: Onset is s- and the rime is -it. The word flip, onset is fl- and rime is -ip).

Sound isolation: (how to teach Phonemic awareness)

S are given a word and need to identify the beginning middle and end sounds of the word (ex. Bite: beginning sound: /b/ , middle: /i/ , end: /t/

Sound Identity (how to teach Phonemic awareness)

group of words that share the same beginning, middle, or end sound but no other shared sounds. (Ex. Light, Leap, Let, all have L at the beginning)

sound blending (how to teach Phonemic awareness)

teacher says sounds with only brief pauses in between each sound and students guess the word. (ex. T says /b/....../a/....../t/..... Students then say "bat")

sound substitution (how to teach Phonemic awareness)

Teacher asks child to substitute one sound for another to create a new word (Ex. T says, "cat, cat, cat" Substitute /k/ sound for /b/, we get, "bat, bat, bat")

Sound Deletion (how to teach Phonemic awareness)

the teacher will say a word then removes a sound and asks the student what the new word is (ex. the word is flag, the teacher removes the /f/ and asks what the new word is; the student should say lag)

sound segmentation (how to teach Phonemic awareness)

break down a word into its individual sound components (ex. Students take the word bee and break it into /b/ /e/)

What is the connection between phonics and phonemic awareness?

Students cannot learn which letters represent which sound (phonics) until they are aware of the sounds in a word (phonemic awareness)

How to help Struggling learners/readers with Phonological and phonemic awareness

1. focus on key skills: blending and segmenting are the most difficult(small groups work best)
2. reteaching lacking skills: change lessons pace and increasing modeling
3. use variety of concrete examples (real life examples or pictures work best)
4. provide additional practice

How to help ELs with Phonological and phonemic awareness

biggest hurdle for ELs: being able to hear and manipulate sounds that are not phonemes in their first language (Ex. phoneme /b/ is not in the Spanish lang.)

Instructional Strategies and activities for classroom (Domain 2: Word Analysis)

1. blend, segment, substitute, and delete phonemes (phonemic awareness)
2. use poems or nursery rhymes to teach rhyming (phonological awareness)
3. count the words in a sentence (phonological awareness)
4. teach rhyming explicitly
Remember: NO letters involved, ONLY speaking and listening

concept of print

Understanding the basic principles about how letters, words, and sentences are represented in written language

The Aspects of concepts of print (that students must know):

1. awareness of print and spoken language (print/text=meaning)
2. letter, word, and sentence representation (You must know multiple letters make up a word, multiple words make up a sentence, how many words are in a line, and where a sentence starts and ends)
3. directionality of print (left to right, sentence starts on the next row below)
4. book handling skills (front and back cover, how and when to turn pages)

Letter Recognition

Ability to identify both the uppercase and lowercase letters

Letter Naming

The ability to say the name of a letter

Letter formation

ability to write the lower and uppercase letters legibly.

Language Experience Approach (LEA)

uses students' words to create a text that becomes material for a reading lesson ; similar to shared reading

Phonetic spelling

The third stage of developmental spelling children spell words like they sound. The speller perceives and represents all of the phonemes in a word, though spellings may be unconventional. Examples: EGL = eagle; ATE = eighty.

Instructional Strategies and activities for classroom (Concepts of Print: Domain 2: Word Analysis)

1. Teach front and back of books
2. Work on locating author and illustrator on books
3. read aloud to students (everyday)
4. point where a sentence starts and ends
5. teach left -> right, directionality
6. Shared book experience

Multi sensory methods to help children recognize letter names and write upper and lower case letters

1. associate names and things w letters (J is for Juice)
2. Sing the Alphabet
3. ABC books
4. Practice writing upper and lower case letters (kinesthetic and tactile methods: writing with your finger in sand)

Concepts of print for Struggling learners/readers

Focus on key concepts and skills:
1. Directionality (usage of pointers when reading is good)
2. being able to identify words and letters (letter tiles and cards with words) Knowing how many words are in a sentence

Word Identification

the ability to read aloud and decode words correctly.

word recognition

making a connection between the word being pronounced and its meaning

What is a sight word?

A word that is immediately recognized as a whole and does not require analysis for identification. (No decoding)

Sight words that should be taught:

1. high frequency words (common everyday words: as, of, the, where)
2. words w irregular spelling (ex. dove, guest)
3. words students want to know (ex. dinosaur)
4. words introduced in lessons (your academic vocabulary)

Morphology

Study of word formation (working with Prefixes, Suffixes, and roots)

Morphological clues

1. using prefixes, suffixes, and root words to identify words
2. recognize words by analyzing syllables
3. context clues

Decoding

the analysis of letters in a word to determine pronunciation/ translate text into speech

Encoding

Ability to spell using phonic patterns

Orthology

the conventional spelling system of a language

Consonant Blend

Two or more consecutive consonants which retain their individual sounds (e.g., /bl/ in block; /str/ in string).

vowel digraph

consists of two vowels that together represent one sound- like the "oa" in boat that makes the long o sound.

Consonant Digraph

Two consecutive consonants that represent one phoneme, or sound (e.g., /ch/, /sh/).

r-controlled vowels

The letter r affects the sound of the vowel(s) that precedes it (er, ir, ur, ar, or) there neither a long or short vowel

Dipthong

2 vowels in which the sound begins at the first vowel and moves toward the sound of the second vowel (the vowel sounds glide together) (Ex. snout=ou/boy=oy)

Automaticity

Is achieved when a child's word identification is sift and accurate (essential for reading fluency)

Systematic Phonics Instruction

Teaching phonics with a clear program/ following a sequence of skills considered necessary for efficient word decoding and spelling (start with simple and work to more complex things/ skills build on one another)

The best form of phonics instruction

Instructional Strategies and Classroom Activities (Phonics and Sight words: Domain 2: Word Analysis)

1. teach phonics using systematic approach
2. explicitly teach phonic patterns
3. Use "I do, we do, you do" modeling
4. Teach word families
5. Use word sorts (good practice)
6. use pictures or multi sensory methods to make sight words fun (ex. sight word hopscotch)

decodable text

Text that contains phonics patterns that are easily decodable

Predictable Text

Text that follows repeated sentence patterns

word families

A group of words that have similar vowel teams, roots, rimes (ex. clean, team, mean)

Common Phonics spelling patterns

CV, CVC, CCVC, CVCC, CVVC, CVCE (silent e),
VCV (o_e)
C=consonant
V=vowel

Stages of Spelling development

1. Pre communicative
2. Semi phonetic
3. Phonetic
4. Transitional
5. Conventional

Precommunicative Stage

(first stage) Usually scribbles, pictures, very few letters

Semiphonetic Stage

(second stage) The child begins to understand letter-sound correspondence--that sounds are assigned to letters. At this stage, the child often uses single letters for words (Ex. U for you)

phonetic stage

(Third stage) Child Knows that letters represent sounds and has at least one letter represent each sound in a vowel. (ex. spelling come as KOM)

Transitional stage

(fourth stage) knows most orthographic patterns of English. for the most part the student choses the correct letter combinations to represent sounds

conventional stage

(fifth stage) Almost spells all words correctly, most mistakes are from irregular word spelling

Instructional Strategies and Class Activities (Word Analysis, Recognition, and Spelling: Domain 2: Word Analysis)

1. Read, Read, Read!
2. Teach suffixes, prefixes, roots
3. Teach common vowel combinations (ea, ie)
4. Teach word families
5. Word sorts
6. teach word etymology (word origins)

What are the advantages of using a predictable text?

- helps students with vocabulary
- helps build confidence in reading
- can help students use context clues (pictures)

What are the disadvantages of using predictable text?

- students may rely too heavily on pictures and patterns to read

Assessment for Decoding in isolation

Decoding in isolation: Give students a list of words to read and record their responses

Assessment for Decoding in context

Students read a teacher selected passage out loud and T records mistakes or repeatedly missed patterns

Morpheme

The smallest unit of meaning. Morphemes are some words, and all affixes
(Examples:
walk - 1 morpheme
walked - 2 morphemes (walk / ed)
chair - 1 morpheme
chairs - 2 morphemes (chair / s)
Unexplainable - 4 morphemes (un / ex / plain / able)

root word

The base word you start with before adding prefixes or suffixes

affix

a prefix, suffix, or root word

open syllable

Syllable which ends in a vowel rather than a consonant, Makes the vowel sound LONG (ex. bee-tle, bee is an oepn syllable)

closed syllable

syllable that ends with a consonant, makes the vowel sound SHORT (ex. kick-ball, both vowel sounds are short)

Instructional Strategies and Class Activities (Syllabic and Structural Analysis, Orthographic knowledge

1. teach word etymology (word origins to help w understanding meaning)
2. Use word sorts <3
3. teach syllable types and divisions

Syllabic Analysis

Process of decoding a multisyllabic word by examining the word's syllables

Structural Analysis (morphemic analysis)

the process of decoding and using familiar word parts (base words, prefixes, and suffixes) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Syllable Types

1. closed: ends in consonant, short vowel
2. open: ends in vowel, long vowel sound
3. VCV: silent E, long vowel sound
4. vowel - r (controlled r): vowel with r, -er, -ar, neither long nor short vowel
5. vowel digraph: 2 vowels next to each other that make a new sound
6. consonant LE at the end of the word (Ex. UncLE makes "UL" sound)

fluency

The ability to read effortlessly at an appropriate pace with expression

Fluency is strongly inked to comprehension

What 3 things do you need to have fluency as a reader?

Accuracy, rate, and prosody

Accuracy (for fluency)

the ability to read the text with very few mistakes

rate (for fluency)

the speed at which readers read aloud (not too slow and not too fast)

Prosody (for fluency)

elements of reading such as: expression, phrasing, pausing

repeated reading

as instructional strategy where a student has multiple exposures to the same text

(good for practice and building reading confidence and reading rate to increase fluency)

Choral Reading

reading aloud from the same text in unison to enhance oral reading fluency.

Echo reading

Teacher reads aloud then has students repeat

Whisper Reading

students read text with a whisper, can include partner work

Reader's Theater

Reading activity to help with prosody. Students read as characters (like a play) to practice oral reading fluency with an emphasis on expression and phrasing

Why is reading fluency important for comprehension?

reading fluency is necessary so students can spend more time and energy focusing on the comprehension of the text rather than decoding and pronunciation.

Silent reading (Pros & cons)

PRO: Students should be provided as much time reading as possible (helps build fluency)

CON: Struggling readers could do "fake reading" or read a text that is above their reading level. Teacher needs to make sure that they are choosing books that are their own reading level (can use the 5 finger test to know)

Instructional Strategies and Class Activities (Domain 3: Fluency)

1. Use repeated reading often (improves rate and accuracy)
2. cary types of reading done in class (choral, echo, silent, partner)
3. Chart fluency progress while using repeated reading (helps students be self-motivated)
4. Use readers theater (helps with prosody and oral reading fluency
5. Read alouds! / good teacher modeling for reading

Strategies to build Accuracy

1. monitored oral reading
2. repeated reading

For poor accuracy: give specific instruction for word identification w/ the goal of automaticity

For young readers: give systematic and explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, and sight words

Strategies to build reading rate

1. monitored oral reading
2. repeated reading
3. whisper reading (group of students read aloud to themselves and teacher provides feedback)
4. silent reading w/ accountability (two students read the same text and then quiz each other on what they read)

Strategies to build prosody

1. Phrase Cued Reading: Lessons that use text that has been marked by teachers. Would be done in small groups made up of students with similar needs
2. Reader's theater!

Structural Analysis

the process of using familiar word parts (base words, prefixes, and suffixes) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Assessment for Structural analysis

1. assess in isolation: student reading off a list of prefixes, suffixes, and root words out loud)
2. In context: reading a Teacher selected passage that has many words with target affixes and root elements

Assessment for Syllabic analysis

In isolation: Student reads a list (Ex. list of open syllables: robot, ocean, pilot, title, etc.)
In context: Oral reading with teacher making notes of common mistakes

The 3 components of a fluency lesson

1) Teacher modeling: T should read text aloud to class and model appropriate accuracy, rate, and prosody
2) Student practice: Its the students turn to read aloud
3) Teacher feedback: T responds to Students effort and can have student revisit some mistakes they have made

Fluency instruction is best in small groups or 1-on-1

Struggling readers: Fluency

- use Students appropriate reading level text
- Focus on improving accuracy with additional word identification instruction (will improve automaticity)
- Focus on recognition of key sight words (again, to improve automaticity
- Improve rate (practice with oral reading and silent reading)

English Learners: Fluency

- ELs need to learn tonal patterns and rhythms for prosody (teacher modeling and Phase- Cued reading)
- Echo reading

Assessment of Fluency

CAN ONLY BE DONE ORALLY

Accuracy: Running records with 95% accuracy

Rate: timing and finding words per minute. Student reads and teacher marks mistakes

Prosody: can be assessed when listening to a student read aloud (looking for: appropriate pitch, expression, pausing, inflection, and overall expression)

For short responses, When in doubt....

include practice, practice, practice! :)

Five Finger test

a way to "test" a book before you spend too much time with it and get frustrated

Find a page of text somewhere in the middle of the book (one with lots of text and few or no pictures).

Each time you come to a word you don't know, hold 1 finger up. If you have all 5 fingers up before you get to the end of the page, it is probably too difficult for you right now.

If you have less than 5 fingers but more than 1 or 2 fingers up when you finish, the book may be just what you need to grow as a reader.

5 Levels of Phonological Awareness

(simple to more complex)
1. Rhyming and alliteration
2. Sentence Segmenting
3. Syllables
4. Onsets and Rimes
5. Phonemic awareness (Blending sounds into words, segmenting words into sounds, deleting/adding/substituting sounds in words)