Scott Adcox

Doing More With Less Since 1972

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We Love Free and We Love Spanish

May 2, 2008 / / 0 Comments

I love it when big companies reach out to help communities and make resources available for free! To honor El Dia de Los Niños – a Latin holiday that celebrates children as the center of the Latino family, the NCFL (National Center for Family Literacy) has released a new Spanish version of their magazine Cultivating Readers (Cultivando el hábito de la lectura). The magazine gives parents activities, ideas, and support to help their kids learn literacy and language skills.

“Parents are in the best position to instill in their children a lifelong love of learning,” said Sharon Darling, president & founder of NCFL. “Studies show that children who spend time reading with their parents are more likely to become accomplished readers themselves. This magazine will help parents incorporate effective, research-based literacy and reading activities into their daily routines. Many Hispanic parents need information in their native language, so that they can fully understand the reading continuum and become comfortable with the information without worrying about translation.”

The 16-page magazine includes activities and strategies to increase the reading readiness and school success specifically for three age groups — infants and toddlers, preschoolers, and students from kindergarten through grade three.

I think this is a wonderful thing and I hope many parents take advantage of it! Read the whole article here.

Reading’s Fab Five

May 1, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Better known as The Five Components of Reading, the Fab Five are the crucial instruments that research has shown kids need in order to become successful readers. Research is great . . . but are these really so important and are they necessary? My answer to both questions is a big resounding YES! Each one is important and they are absolutely necessary to teach so that your kids not only build a strong foundation of skills, but also continue to develop them in order to become accomplished readers that go on to do well in other subject areas.

Before I break down each of the Fab Five, it’s important to note that these components are not “steps to reading”. They are not meant to be introduced one at a time and mastered before moving on to the other. While it’s true that children will have to learn parts of some components before they can work on others, they are meant to work together throughout the process of learning to read. This means that you will be working on different aspects of the five components as your child’s skills grow. For example: Your child may need to work on some phonemic awareness skills before he/she can work on phonics. Yet another child can be working on vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension all at once in the same story. It may sound confusing at first, but you’ll get the hang of it once you see examples in the teaching methods and lesson ideas!
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Let’s Read It This Way – Lesson Idea #15

May 1, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Big books work well for this, but you can use any book with large print. Try to use a book that you’ve already read with your child and one that has a good amount of dialog in it.

  1. Tell your child that you’ll be reading xyz book, but that you’ll be hunting for different things this time. Write, or show them what an exclamation mark (!) and question mark (?) look like.
  2. Tell them that you’ll be hunting for these in the book and that they should let you know when they see one because you’re going to have to read it differently.
  3. Begin reading the book (maybe with less expression than you normally do) until your child lets you know that they’ve spotted one of the marks. Say “Oh, thanks – that’s an (!), that mark means that we have to read this sentence with a lot of expression. Listen to me first and then we’ll try it together.”
  4. Reread the sentence modeling good expression and then have them read it (or repeat after you if they can’t read yet) with you. Try to have them imitate you as much as possible so that they get into the habit of learning to change their voice when they see these marks.
  5. Do the same with question marks – Teach them that our voices sound different when we ask questions and that they should sound like that when we read questions too.
  • This is one of those easy activities that you can do to lay a strong foundation for good reading habits and fluency. It can be done whether your child can read or not because all they have to do is practice sounding like you (a good reader)!
  • Change this up for older kids (2nd grade and up) that need help with expression by skipping the “hunt” and just calling their attention to the marks when they read. Having them listen to you, reread it with you, and then again by themselves will give them the practice they need to improve their fluency.

Show Me How – Lesson Idea #14

May 1, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You’ll need a book that’s on the bigger side of normal and your “dunce cap” on for this one.

  1. Tell your child that you’re getting ready to read a book and get into a position where he/she can clearly see the book. Hold the book upside down and announce that you’re ready to begin. Hopefully your child will look at you funny and tell you that’s not how you hold a book.
  2. You (in total disbelief) ask him/ her “Why not?” – they give you an answer and you say “Oh, ok, I got it”. Then you fix it by holding the book sideways and telling them that now you’re ready. They’ll laugh and point at you and tell you you’re doing it all wrong!
  3. Do this a couple of times in different ways until you “give up” and say “Ok, show me how to read this book the right way”. See if you can get them to explain to you why it should be read that way. You’re looking for them to tell you things like: the front cover needs to be right side up, the title should be on top, we can’t read upside down, you need to open the book up this way, we need to turn the pages in this direction, the pictures can’t be upside down, the words can’t be upside down, etc. If you need to, point these things out to your child.
  • This simple pretend play can be very beneficial in helping your child understand the concepts of print. Kids love to be right and they’ll have fun telling you that you’re wrong! Don’t we all?

Phonemic Awareness

April 30, 2008 / / 0 Comments

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness (PA) is the ability to hear and manipulate the different sounds in our language. Basically that means that kids should be able to hear, put together, and separate the sounds in spoken words.
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Phonics

April 29, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You may have memories of learning phonics in school and being continuously drilled on letter sounds and spelling rules until you thought you would explode. Or you may be a product of whole language instruction (like me) and have very little knowledge of the intricate workings of our written language – you know how to read and write, but you’re not sure how it all works. It just depends on when and where you went to school. So which way is best? Recent research has shown that along with phonemic awareness instruction, both phonics and whole language instruction is best. You can read more about the differences between the two and why they should work together in this article. Either way, phonics instruction has come a long way since we were in school and there are ways to make it fun! So let’s get started on what you need to know to teach your child phonics.
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Fluency

April 29, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Fluency … the great bridge. Fluency acts as the bridge between decoding words and comprehending what they mean. But what does fluency mean? Here’s the National Reading Panel’s official definition:

Fluency: The ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with proper expression.

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Vocabulary

April 29, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Words, words, words! The more words your child knows, the better reader he or she will become. The great news is that you don’t have to wait until your child is of reading age to start building the vocabulary they will need in order to be great readers. This is because there are four different kinds of vocabulary that we use in our lives: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Studies show that children with larger listening and speaking vocabularies experience greater comprehension, therefore success as readers than children with a more limited listening and speaking word bank. This is because a child can know the meanings of thousands of words without having to know what they look like or how to spell them. Once they know the meaning of a word or a concept, they can just attach that knowledge to the visual representations (the words) later on as they are exposed to them in reading and writing. This large listening/speaking word bank helps them be more efficient readers because they don’t have to spend time learning to read the word and the meaning, they just have to learn to attach a known meaning to a new word.
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7 Common Myths About Reading

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments

Myths run rampant in almost every part of our lives – especially when it comes to parenting and education. Things that have “always been done” may not necessarily be what’s right, and vice versa. It’s important to be able to tell good and true information apart from faulty misconceptions. In regards to reading there are many of these myths. As parents who aren’t “formal” educators, you may not know how to tell whether certain practices are useful or not. So here’s a list of common myths that I’ve come across while working with teachers and parents.
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Rhyme Toss – Lesson Idea #13

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments

You can play this with 2 or more people, but the more the better. So get some friends, siblings, or dad involved and have fun!

  1. Sit or stand with players in a circle and have something ready to toss (bean bag, ball, etc.)
  2. Say a word like “cat”, and toss the bag to the next person who has to say a word that rhymes like “hat”, then toss to the next person and so on. Switch to a new word when players run out.
  3. Sample word lists you can use: (ball, wall, tall, hall, mall, call, fall, all); ( blue, shoe, two, new, who, boo, flew, drew, etc.); (pit, bit, hit, fit, lit, mitt, sit, kit), etc.
  • You can make this more challenging for older kids by making the words harder. Sample words: (plate, eight, freight, berate, date, mate, bait, gate, hate, etc.).

Short or Long? – Lesson Idea #12

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments
  1. Choose some short words (one syllable) and long words(multi syllable) that show up in books, poems, or songs that your child is familiar with.
  2. As you read each word, ask your child if it is a short word or long word. Keep track of what they say.
  3. Then write each word and ask them again. Show them the differences between the short ones and long ones. Talk about how the ones that sound longer usually look longer too because they have more sounds to write. Check if they were right on their guesses.
  • This activity helps kids with early concepts of print as well as developing their oral language skills. You’ll be surprised by how good they become at this and how it will help them in the future when working with words!

Spell Anything! – Lesson Idea #11

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments
  1. Write a word on a white board or other erasable surface and have your child read it aloud.
  2. Erase and change the first letter/last letter/middle letter – depending on what letters/sounds you are working with. Ask your child what the new word is.
  3. Repeat and repeat until you have a decent list of new words that you created just by changing certain letters.
  4. Have your child read the whole list – blending if necessary and then repeating them quickly to practice fluency. You can extend this activity by having them make up sentences using some or all of the words.
  5. Sample list:
  • start with the word “cup”
  • change the “p” to a “t” for the word “cut”
  • change the ” u” to an “a” for the word “cat”
  • change the “c” to an “h” for the word “hat
  • change the “h” to an “m” for the word “mat”
  • change the “m” to an “f” for the word “fat”
  • add an “s” to make the word “fast”
  • You can see how you can keep going and going with this. You can make this as easy or as hard as you’d like depending on what your child can do. Have fun with it!

Stretch It – Lesson Idea #10

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments
  1. Tell your child that you are going to say a sentence and that they have to help you stretch it by adding a word to it to make it longer.
  2. Then you add another word and continue to take turns adding words until you have a long sentence (that still makes sense).
  3. For example: You say ” The kitten played.” Then it can become ” The white kitten played”, “The white kitten played outside.”, “The white kitten played outside with a ball.”, “The white kitten and the dog played outside with a ball.”, etc.
  • This game can be adapted for many different ages. You can leave it like it is for younger kids (and keep the sentences shorter) or you can add some requirements to make it harder for older kids. Add things like: “Now you have to add a noun, adjective, pronoun, adverb, etc.” or you can have them write out the sentence when finished. this is a great game for developing vocabulary and practicing extending sentences so that they are more detailed!

ABC Scramble – Lesson Idea #9

April 28, 2008 / / 0 Comments
  1. When your child is not in the room, lay out some alphabet cards in a long row – make sure they are scrambled up and out of order.
  2. Tell your child that you’re not sure what happened, but there’s something seriously wrong with the alphabet and you need their help fixing the letters.
  3. Have your child try to put the letters in a row correctly. They can sing the alphabet or use an alphabet chart to help them out.
  • The sillier you get with this the better! You can make up different stories about what “happened” to the alphabet.
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