1. Phonemic Awareness: specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
2. Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language – parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes.
3. Vocabulary refers to the words we must understand to communicate effectively.
4. Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before.
5. Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

6. Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to 1) decode what they read; 2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and 3) think deeply about what they have read.

Brena struggles with Fluency. Interestingly enough, she still has a high comprehension level. The fluency problem severely affects her enjoyment of reading. Within that diagnosis she specifically needs help with the speed of her decoding. I also believe that increasing her familiar word vocabulary will help immensely. To that end, I am modifying the approach we use when studying vocabulary (currently using Wordly Wise) and spelling (in the K12 curriculum). She also needs more phonic/phoneme understanding. She doesn't need more phonics, she needs help bridging the knowledge she has of phonics/phonemic awareness with the actual application of it. That is a pretty good definition for decoding.

I've noticed that my younger daughter, Hannah (7 yrs., 2nd grade) has none of these fluency issues. She spells like a champ and already has most of her multiplication tables mastered (because she does them with Brena, her 2nd grade curriculum hasn't even introduced the concept of multiplication). Why? I was prompted to ask, what's the difference in the way they process or receive information? I've been able to pinpoint a big difference which opened my understanding.. Hannah sees patterns intuitively. She actually hunts them down. Patterns satisfy her. If she is answering a true/false type assessment - she will look for a pattern in the answers, if she finds one she's oddly enthusiastic about it. Brena doesn't see the patterns. In math work, she knows her "doubles facts and the doubles +/- strategy" but she doesn't reach into a tool chest to pull out that strategy when she runs across a problem to which it would apply. She needs to learn the skill, the strategy AND learn to link the two together! Now, this may seem like a very simple concept and it is, but to see it means that I've been able to get a glimpse inside how Brena's mind works. This isn't how I think or how Hannah thinks (yes, she's like me). But I get it now and I'm totally excited about using this information to use it to target and build skills in areas toward helping Brena reach her potential.

So how to use it? What do I do now? Brena and I sat down and set some goals for her. She is 10 and should be in "5th grade". She's doing 3rd grade Language Arts and 4th grade Math. Her goal is to complete all of 4th grade material this year. That's a lot of ground to cover. So how to do it? Well getting her reading on target would go a long way in achieving her goal as the work will get easier the better she reads. My goal of course is to help her reach her potential. As she and I discussed reaching her curriculum goals, she became concerned about the amount of spelling words she'd have to do per week (close to 60). Ummmmm and she has a hard time with memorizing (goes back to the pattern thing). And would memorizing the spelling of 60 words help her increase her fluency? No. And shouldn't everything we spend time doing at this point work toward that end? Yes. Another week goes by and I read 4 dozen more articles about reading instruction.

I ran across an article with a video clip about a school which uses the concept of "Word Study". Did you know 90% of the words in the English language follow the rules? Well snap! She doesn't need to memorize a bunch of words..... she needs to be taught the pattern - the rules. Phonics, Vocabulary and Spelling instruction combined in a word study. The concept works perfectly for increasing fluency! I don't need to win the lottery, I'm happy implementing this practical way to study words. Understanding that literacy is "like a braid of interwoven threads" I will begin to intensely work with Brena toward increasing her fluency by helping her orthography (spelling) part of her braid, the other areas of literacy: reading, oral language, stories, and writing will all be strengthened.

Spelling and Vocabulary words will be given purpose in her instruction beyond mastery of them as a skill. They become part of her learning plan and tools I can use in instruction toward the main objective: increase fluency. No longer taking up valuable time and learning energy without feeling an impact on the objective. I am sooooo excited. We will study letter-sound correspondences, phonics, spelling patterns, high-frequency word recognition, decoding strategies, word use and meanings. Becoming fully literate is absolutely dependent on fast, accurate recognition of words in texts, and fast, accurate production of words in writing so that readers and writers can focus attention on meaning.

Most phonics, spelling and vocabulary programs are characterized by (1) skill instruction (2) systematic scope and sequence (3) repeated practice. Unfortunately, much of the repeated practice consists of rote drill and students have little opportunity to manipulate word concepts or apply critical thinking skills. Brena needs skill instruction but "teaching is not telling". She needs hands-on opportunities to manipulate word features in a way that will allow her to generalize - beyond the individual examples to entire groups of words. She needs this to see the pattern!

So this weekend (11/19/05) I will begin to assess what stage of spelling she is in in order to merge the spelling and vocabulary curriculum we need with word study activities. The three stages are emergent spellers, letter name spellers, and within-word pattern spellers. I believe that Brena will be in a transitional stage between the letter name and within-word stages.The program is developed to be able to use with current curriculum. I anticipate a large amount of preparation time on my part. First to read (and study) the book "Words their way: word study for phonics, vocabulary and spelling instruction" I anticipate about 15 hours. Then I will build a general outline of how to incorporate our current curriculum with word study activities.

Specifically I anticipate adding several hours a week (generally on Sunday evenings) to my lesson planning time. It may become easier, but a lot of materials will need to be developed and that will add additional time during the week as I prep (3-5 hours initially). I hope to get several weeks ahead in planning so that I can work on materials preparation as time permits through the week. Brena is an auditory and kinesthetic learner. I am excited about how this change will meet her needs.

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Posted by Anonymous

Perhaps Brena's true potential cannot be found in the strengths that you and Hannah share. Don't forget to give her free time to develop and strenghten her unique skills and abilities. Make sure to give her opportunities to be successful, instead of intensly focusing on the areas where she needs improvement.

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Posted by MySmokyMtnHomeschool

and came to your blog. I see you haven't posted in a while. How are you? I hope all is well.

This is really a great place to come for encouragment, and a few laughs. I hope you'll join us again, soon.

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Posted by smfeet2001

Please tell us 6 random things about yourself and ask 6 others to do the same. Tee hee

Blessings~
HOlly

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Posted by Mydogfoxy

You do Awana too?!? So do I! Isn't awesome? I'm hoping for an award this year... the awards ceremony is on the 23 (I think) of this month. I absolutely CANNOT wait! =D

Brianna

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