Strategic Prompting for Emergent Readers

1. R.I.P. “SOUND IT OUT”
WHAT ELSE CAN YOU SAY?
FOSTERING STRATEGICPROCESSINGIN EARLYREADERS
Lauren Buck, MAEd, NBCT
Chocowinity Primary School, NC
BeaufortCounty Schools
Reading Recovery®Teacher
Early Literacy Specialist
lbuck@beaufort.k12.nc.us
2015 North Carolina Reading Association Conference
Raleigh, NC

2. Goals for Today...
 Confirm what you already know
and learn something new!
 Strengthen our understanding of
effective prompting.
 Understand the importance of
sound-letter relationships.
 Understand the importance of
teaching children to self-monitor
and do the work to solve a
difficult word.

4. l i z a r d
b e a r
g a r a g e

5. 40-50% of words cannot be
solved by saying:
“Sound it Out!”

6. “It is not helpful (or even fair) to a child for us to
prompt with “sound it out” when the word is said,
night, know, or any of the other gazillion words
that do not follow basic phonics rules.”
~Johnson & Keier, 2010

7. What do I do? How?
What is the QUICK fix?

9. Programs
DON’T
Teach!
Teachers
DO!

10. “The intent is not to find an
excuse for the lack of progress,
or a label to explain the child’s
difficulty, or to state what was
wrong with the child’s past
experience at home or at school.
The intent is to find a way to get
around the road block and re-
establish accelerated learning.”
~M. Clay, 2005
Examine YOURSELF as a Teacher!

11. Are you focused on the Visible
or Invisible?

12. We are BRAIN SURGEONS

13. Numbers Activity
 Turn the paper over and circle as many numbers in
order as you can in 30 seconds.
 Now let’s try again with a STRATEGY!

14. Building the Cueing System
Behaviors to
encourage:
 Rereading
 Monitoring
 Checking
 Confirming
 Self-Correcting

15. The Value of Running Records

16. Selecting a Text
 THINK ABOUT…
 Assessment results
 Pinpoint a focus/TP
 Student interest level
 Variety of genres
 Vocabulary
 Language Structure
 Strengths and weaknesses of your students
 Remember that you are NOT teaching the book—you are
using it as a resource to teach for strategies.

17. I can see a [t/r/a/mpoline].
VIDEO

18. “Selection of appropriate errors
to attend to is a skill teachers
have to develop…”
~McNaughton, 1981
When is it best to stop and
teach?
 If the child notices the
error and does some
work.
 At the end of the
sentence.
 At the end of the page.
 Go back to it after the
story has ended.

19. I urge you to WAIT!
Give them a chance...
W—WHY
A—AM
I—I
T—TALKING?

20. Noticing Meaning-What Makes Sense?
 The brain looks for the most meaningful sign or
piece .
 Why do we read?To gain meaning—to get a
message.
 We teach early readers to notice pictures to
teach them how to visualize and hold the
“meaning” in the head while reading.
 We read using context…what makes sense?
What would fit?
 Think about how vocabulary matters here!

21. “Here are my [sc--shoes].”
 VIDEO

22. “I’m going to go and see
the [birds].”

23. Noticing Visual-What Looks Right?
 Word Constructing
 Directionality (everything works L-R), SLOW CHECK
 Features of letters (begin with a line, circles, etc)
 Letters make up words (show me first/last letter,
capitals)
 Spacing within words (does it look like a word?)
 Changing vowels (map, mop)
 Beginning letters (blends/digraphs)
 Inflectional endings (ing, ed, s)
 Onset/Rime (cat, mat, sat)
 Taking words apart (chunking)

24. The children told Mrs. [Madi].
 VIDEO

25. Ben is looking
at a [dinosaur] card.
Ben’s [dinosaur] cake is a
dinosaur!

26. Jack is [in] to bed.
Go-ing FIRST PART/LAST PART
SLOW CHECK!

27. Helping Letter Confusions
p b q d a
 Always prompt for meaning first when the error
is in text.
 Teach tactile ways of remembering (movement).
 Carefully discuss letter formation (around, up,
down).
 Letter sorting (tails, lines, circles, etc).
 WRITING!

28. Make Links to Known
 The-the
 Can-Can’t-Cannot
 Oh look! Oh dear!
 Away-Asleep Across-Around
 Inside-Outside Hillside
 Because-Before Behind
 Look-Book
 The-This-That-There
 Write that word, now read it
Nancy Anderson, 2012

29. Noticing Structure-What Sounds Right?
 All children are language learners so we are all language
teachers
 Becoming literate involves learning a complex language
 We can’t talk, read, or write messages without controlling
structure
 All languages and dialects are structured--this does not
mean your child has a deficit
 Explain how the book works and “book talk”
 Find out what the child can control
 Structure conveys, carries, and forms the meaning
 Choose texts carefully
 Demonstrate and MODEL!

30. I’ll/you mad
Or you’ll all get my
bommy-knocker.
 VIDEO

31. How does the book work?
Tells you what he likes and
then shows you (Here is...)

32. “Here you [go], Tom,”
said Dad.

33. Choppy or Smooth?

34. How to Foster Fluency
 Provide familiar reading (Browsing Boxes)
 Listen for pitch, stress, intonation
 Model good reading
 Select texts that lend to fluency
 Make it “sound like talking”
 Put words together (phrases)
 Teach punctuation
 Teacher reads then stops and student starts
 Partner reading
 Video/record reading

35. Notice PUNCTUATION!
What Are Those Marks?
 VIDEO

36. YOUR TURN!

37. HANDOUT

38. HANDOUT

39. Analyzing Strategic Processing
Level 5/D
look__
is_ SC_
m- __T
R

40. “What is spoken to
the child is later
said by the child
to the self, and
is later
abbreviated and
transformed into
the silent speech
of the child’s
thought.”
~R.Tharp and R. Gallimore, 1989

41. Keep In Mind...
 They’re children…they ARE NOT perfect!
 Be insistent, consistent, and persistent to get
a learning shift!
 You really are a BRAIN SURGEON!
 What you say DOES matter--THINK!

42. Questions? Comments?

43. Resources
 Pat Johnson & Katie Keier (2010), Catching
Readers BeforeThey Fall, Stenhouse.
 Irene C. Fountas & Gay Su Pinnell (1996), Guided
Reading: Good FirstTeaching, Heinemann.
 Jan Richardson (2009), The Next Step in Guided
Reading K-8, Scholastic.
 Marie Clay (2005), Literacy Lessons Designed for
Individuals (Part 1/Part 2), Heinemann.