Week 7 Assignment 5

Print Awareness: I asked the student questions regarding a book we were about to read:

• Where do I begin reading the book?
• Where is the title of the story?
• Who is the author? What does an author do?
• Who is the illustrator? What does an illustrator do?
• Where is the begiining of the sentence?
• Where does the sentence end?

He was able to answer all these questions accurately indicating that he is aware of print concepts.

Phonemic Awareness: I assessed his ability to isolate phonemes. I pronounced a simple word and asked him tp identify the beginning, middle, and end sounds. The student was able to isolate sounds showing me that he has a beginner's grasp of phonemic awareness.

Phonics: I showed the student a poster filled with letters, blends, dipthongs and digraphs. I pointed to each and asked the student what sound the specific letter or letter combination represents. The student was able to identify the sounds of most consonants, all vowels, some consonant blends and a few digraphs.

Fluency: In order to assess fluency, I had the student read a book on his grade-level and calculated his words read per minute, or WPM. The results of this assessment indicated that the student did not read very fluently.

In order to help the student work on his phonics skills, I would suggest teaching each letter-sound correspondence using multiple approaches. I'd show the student the letter or letters and say the sound they represent; then, I'd say the sound before showing him the letters. Finally, I'd draw the letters in the air or in a tub of sand while saying the sound. I'd use the gradual release framework of "I do, We do, You do" until the student can complete this activity independently. With this method, the student has a visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile grasp of the specific letter-sound correspondence being taught.

For fluency development, I'd have the student do repeated readings of the texts he reads in class. By reading the same text multiple times, he won't have to work hard on decoding and will be able to read the text more efficiently.

Here is a list of websites to help teach children reading readiness skills:

• Curious World
• ABCMouse
• Funbrain