How the Brain Learns to Read- Chapter 2

Here are some of my notes and thoughts after reading chapter two from How the Brain Learns to Read.

Chapter 2- Learning to Read

• Learning to read connects the spoken language networks to visual recognition circuits
• "Speaking is a normal, genetically hardwired capability; reading is not." p. 35
• Phonological awareness- "recognition that oral language can be divided into smaller components, such as sentences into words, words into syllables, and ultimately, syllables into individual phonemes." -p.37
• Phonemic awareness- "understanding that words are made up of individual sounds and that these sounds can be manipulated to create new words." p. 38
• Phonics- "instructional approach for teachng reading and spelling that emphasizes sound-symbol relationships." p.39

Phonemic awareness in kindergarten is a strong predictor of reading success. Early instruction in letter-sound association is important. This statement reassures me to keep working on the letter-sound association work I am doing with my kindergarten students. 

"By grade 3, morphological awareness begins to surpass phonemic awareness in the development of decoding skills." p. 45  This makes sense when I noticed that phonemic awareness activities have dropped from the Challenge SIPPS lessons. Morphological awareness is an important component of the SIPPS Challenge system. This reminds me that I need to be more explicit when I am teaching the morphology component. 

Where are my students in their reading development?

Kindergarten- letter sound

1st grade- full alphabetic

2nd grade- chunking

3rd and 4th- morphology

Using concrete images when presenting abstract concepts

My September goal has been to use concrete images when presenting abstract facts.

How have I been able to use this recently?

• Heggerty Phonemic Awareness practice- using hand gestures to show the position of the target sounds has been very helpful for students. Positional words can be tricky and confusing for young learners, so having the hand gestures is very helpful.
• SIPPS- When practicing oral blending and segmenting it is really helpful for the students to use the graphic organizers of sound placeholders in the program.

How the Brain Learns to Read- Chapter 1

How the Brain Learns to Read by David A. Sousa, chapter 1 Learning Spoken Language

David Sousa lays the foundation of learning to read in chapter 1 with how children learn spoken language. Here are a few take-aways from this chapter.

• Most language is activated in the left hemisphere, but the emotional content of language is held in the right hemisphere. p 13  What can we do to connect the two hemispheres to anchor student learning.
• Infants' brains are wired for all the language sounds, but at about age 1 they start pruning out/off the sounds not found in the language they hear. p. 15 Another reason why it is important for dual languages to be spoken in the home if that is available. Also, this is another reason why it is so important for young children to have lots of experiences with conversations in the home.
• Image-loaded words and verbal (abstract) words are activated in different parts of the brain. Teachers should use concrete images when presenting an abstract concept. p. 16-17
• Building vocabulary in young children (ages birth-3) is very important. Have conversations with young children. The impact continues past age 3. p. 18

Picture Books You Should Read Part 2

The Bad Seed by Jory John and illustrated by Pete Oswald is a picture book that all readers can enjoy. It takes us on a journey through the eyes of a sunflower seed who identifies himself as a baaaad seed.

(Yes, you must read it aloud with a lot of expression.) We all get a little giggle out of mischievous characters who do those naughty things we wish we could do, but we don't want to label ourselves. Does the seed continue to be the bad seed? Will he ever be a good seed?

The Good Egg by Jory John and illustrated by Pete Oswald is a fabulous follow up to The Bad Seed.

Readers get to see the viewpoint of the good egg. He has always been the good egg. He tries to get all his other egg friends to be good eggs. When his friends can't be good he starts cracking up. The egg decides do a little self-care. At this time of year, teachers can be a little weary of trying to be the "good egg". We need to remember that we need to take care of ourselves.

Choice Words by Peter H. Johnston

Peter H. Johnston published Choice Words, How Our Language Affects Children's Learning in 2004. Johnston's text examines the language between teachers and students and how it impacts learning. He states, "In other words, the language that teachers (and their students) use in classrooms is a big deal." p. 10

In chapter one, Johnston gives an overview of the importance language holds on students and learning. Explicitness is one aspect that teachers must determine. "We don't explicitly detail how we do things because one of the rules of conversation is that you don't tell people what they already know. (Grice 1975) Minority students often pay a high price for this assumption." p. 7. Since the assumptions by teachers can have an impact on students, it is important  to consider the explicitness we use in our language, "deciding what to be explicit about requires some knowledge of our audience." p. 8.

Thoughts to consider-

• What do I assume my students already know? How might those assumptions be detrimental to student learning?
• How might my explicit language help my students?
• Where do I need to be more explicit?

Picture Books You Should Read

Picture books can be used with students of all ages. Students can experience complex storytelling, character change, and beautiful artwork while reading picture books. Here are just a few of the amazing picture books out there.

Another by Christian Robinson- This wordless picture book takes readers to another dimension. A young girl and her cat wake in the middle of the night to find a portal opened to another dimension.  Readers will have to look closely at the illustrations and infer the plot since this is a wordless book. This author also illustrated the award winning, Last Stop on Market Street.

• The Rough Patch by Brian Lies- This Caldecott Honor book takes readers through the journey of Farmer Evan and the loss of his beloved dog. Evan is so devastated by the loss that he destroys his prized garden and lets weeds grow everywhere. This book gives readers a glimpse of how deeply we can fall into grief, and how a glimmer of hope can shine through in the end. I read this book aloud to a class of third graders, and they were touched by the story. Great conversations will follow the reading of The Rough Patch.

• Wolf in the Snow by Matthew Cordell won the 2018 Caldecott Award. This wordless book tells the story of a girl who gets lost in a snowstorm, and a young wolf pup who also gets lost in the snow. The two find each other. Will they make it to safety with their families? The illustrations are beautiful and filled with details that even the youngest reader can find to drive the the plot along. I read this book with a group of kindergarten students, and they loved discovering this story.

• The Remember Balloons by Jessie Oliveros is a picture book that
  
  addresses memory loss in a beautiful and tender way. Each member of James's family holds balloons that represent memories of the past. Grandpa has the best balloons because he has lived the longest and experienced the most. Grandpa even has a balloon of a special memory of a fishing trip shared by James and Grandpa. James starts to become concerned when he notices that Grandpa starts losing some of his balloons. Grandpa even lets go of their special fishing trip balloon. This book maintains the dignity of the person suffering from memory loss while helping those left behind to keep and share the memories. I have shared this book with groups of adults and children alike. 

Which picture books have you been reading? Share your thoughts in a comment below, and we can learn from each other.

Sharing the Love of Picture Books through Book Tastings

I love books. I love reading. I want adults and kids to share my love of reading. I want kids and adults to experience the places you can travel to and the experiences you can have with a good book. Today I had the privilege of sharing 80+ amazing books with a room full of wonderful Oasis tutoring volunteers.

I decided to host a Book Tasting for the Oasis volunteers. After looking online, I found several blog posts by teachers who had held book tastings with their students. Just a couple of the helpful resources I used in my attempts to hold a great event include:

• Book Tasting TPT resources by Joanne Miller
• We Are Teachers blog
• Sassy, Savvy, Simple Teaching blog

Once I had the resources and outline of my presentation, it was time to start looking for amazing titles. Picture books aren't my specialty, so I went to the experts. Here are several places you can go for book suggestions:

• Open the Magic-Ramona Recommends
• Association for Library Services to Children
• The Book Wrangler
• List of books we used during the Book Tasting

My local public library became my lifesaver in this project. Their online catalog search feature allowed me to find books in the library circulation and reserve them online. The local libraries did all the hard work. They found the titles, pulled them from the shelves, and delivered them to my local branch.  All I had to do was pull up to the drive-thru window and pick them up.

The day of the book tasting arrived, and many hands helped get the tables ready for the festivities to begin. Tutors read through the books at their tables for about ten minutes. Then they had a few moments to discuss their favorites with their table mates. Tutors took their notes and moved to a different table for more time to read. More reading, and more discussion followed. Readers worked through three rotations before returning back to their original tables.

They had a final time to share about the books they experienced during the book tasting. I asked the tutors to give me some feedback about our time together. Here are just a couple of the comments:

• "I absolutely loved this idea. What a wonderful way to be introduced to books that I might otherwise not encounter! I found several that spur my creative spirit for fun companion activities to enhance the books. - K. Knouse"
• "It was fun to experience new books I had never read. You never know what you might like. Don’t judge a books by its cover. Very enjoyable. "
• "I enjoyed being introduced to new books. It gave me ideas on types of books I could use or have my students read. Each story has a way a child could learn to face & solve problems. It is important to be able to do that."
• "Great way to review lots of books in a short time and also to discuss with others. Huge variety of books. Love to find new books! This was fun. Thank you."
• "I liked this book tasting because it gave me books to read I wouldn’t have picked out."

So what are you waiting for? Gather up an armful of great books, and host a book tasting of your own.