CoL Teacher Inquiry: Fostering Oral Composition in Early Years: Talk for Writing with Pie Corbett

On a chilly Saturday, with the weather keeping us indoors, I found myself  watching  an enlightening presentation delivered by educator Pie Corbett. This engaging session, which formed part of the Sounds-Write Symposium, focused on the significance of developing oral narratives in young child. As the developer of the "Talk to Write" approach, Corbett highlighted the imperative nature of explicitly teaching oral language composition in conjunction with high-quality phonics instruction, recognizing their profound impact on literacy success. Drawing upon Scarborough's rope metaphor, he underscored the crucial role of seamlessly integrating both oral composition and decoding skills in fostering language proficiency.

Corbett's thought-provoking presentation shed light on the undeniable relationship between oral language development and effective phonics teaching and a child literacy success. He emphasized the importance of simultaneously cultivating oral composition skills and decoding abilities, recognizing them as inseparable strands in literacy development. As I dive deeper into the science of reading, specifically the relationship between vocabulary and encoding/decoding I was interested to see Corbett also making this connection. 

Corbett's explanation of the "talk for writing" approach for young learners (4 and 5 year olds) encompasses several key points that form the foundation of an effective classroom environment, fostering literacy skills.

• high expectations
• oral composition and comprehension
• strong phonic instruction for decoding and spelling
• handwriting

To effectively teach story language, according to Corbett, educators should begin with a rich story (this next paragraph will go into more detail about this). Rather than simply reading it aloud, the focus should be on orally presenting the text, allowing children to actively participate by repeating and making the language meaningful. By engaging in these interactive exercises, students internalise the linguistic structures and vocabulary required for constructing their own stories. The emphasis should be on helping students hear, say, and understand the language, fostering a solid foundation for their narrative development. The child will be exposed to the same story over many days. This holistic approach involves incorporating various strategies such as hearing, saying, understanding, drawing, engaging in rich experiences, and role-playing before transitioning to the writing stage. By encouraging imitation and guiding children to notice patterns in language, we enable them to develop their storytelling skills and encourage innovative thinking.

He also shared the concept of a "reading spine" comprising a selection of core books that are read to children, allowing them to immerse themselves in rich literary experiences. By exposing children to high-quality literature, their writing possibilities expand as they absorb elements such as settings, characters, and sentence structures. Corbett stressed that children have the right to be immersed in the finest literature available, setting the stage for their lifelong journey with language and literacy. This concept of the “reading spine” reminds me of the shared picture books that I have been using in my classroom as a part of the Better Start Literacy Approach.

Here are a few of the slides he shared that I have saved as reminders of what I might try out with my Year 1 class:

Picture cards and story structure cards are placed along a rope to retell a story.





Key words from a story are matched with images.








This screenshot above shows the key story language that is explicitly taught to children.







The children are composing their story using pictures along a line and practising their oral narrative.


Nga mihi nui!!

CoL Teacher Inquiry: How the Brain Learns to Read by Prof. Stanislas Dehaene

Prof. Stanislas Dehaene is a neuroscientist and the below is a lecture he gave aimed at teachers about how the brain learns to read. It was interesting to see "learning to read" from the perspective of a scientist rather than an educator. This isn't a new lecture (it is about 10 years old) but it is amazing what scientists can now observe using technology that can then be used to inform best practice in the classroom. 

I have included some notes that summarise  Prof. Stanislas Dehaene's lecture below. I will use these notes to help inform my intervention design in the coming weeks. I have also included at the end of this blog a graphic by "Learning Matters" that has been created based on Prof. Stanislas Dehaene's work as a neuroscientist. 

Here are some of the key points he makes in the video: 

From the brain's point of view, learning to read consists of:

• First, recognising the letters and how they combine into written words (the blue and the red)
• Second, connecting them to the brain systems for coding of speech sounds and for meaning (the orange and the green).

Reading starts in your brain like any other visual stimulation, in the general visual areas of the brain, but then very quickly moves into an area which concerns the recognition of the written word.

Professor Dehaene calls this area the brain's "letter box" because it is where we store our knowledge of letters.

From there it's an explosion of activity into at least two brain networks; one that concerns the meaning of the words, and another that concerns the pronunciation and the articulation of the words.

When first you went to school to learn to read, your brain already had a very sophisticated spoken language system. It also had a very sophisticated visual system, but it needed to create an interface with the visual word form area, the brain's letter box.

Reading consists essentially of creating an interface between your vision system in your brain and your language system, your spoken language system.

Your brain has areas that are shared between spoken language and written language. And these areas are in your brain before you learn to read. They already existed when you were a very young child.

Brain is changed by reading

Everyone's brain anatomy is changed by learning to read, and Professor Dehaene and his colleagues have managed to make a complete map of the brain areas that have been changed by reading.

The first major change is making the "letter box area” active. It is not active in people who haven't learnt to read.

Learning to read is to a large extent the capacity to attend to the individual phonemes of speech and to attribute them different letters.

What predicts how well a child will learn to read

The predictors of learning to read in young children are:

• How well they know phonics - the understanding of the sound systems of language
• How large is the size of their spoken vocabulary. If they know a large number of words, they will learn to read faster.

"We can help children learn to read, way in advance, by enhancing their vocabulary and their sound system of language at the age of three, four and five - even if we don’t start to teach reading until the age of six or seven, as some European countries do" - says Professor Dehaene.

Phonics versus whole word reading

We now understand better the question of phonics versus whole-word reading.

Should we teach the whole-word level, or should we really teach every single letter and the pronunciation?

The answer is clear. Professor Dehaene says, "whole-word reading is a myth". The brain processes every single letter and does not look at the whole word shape.

Teaching letter to sound correspondence is therefore essential. It is the fastest way to acquire reading and comprehension.

Preschools should be preparing children for learning to read and phonics exercises can help a lot.

"The brain process' every single letter and does not look at the whole word shape. Teaching letter sound correspondence is therefore essential. It is the fastest way to acquire reading and comprehension."  - says Professor Dehaene.

Brains are the same all around the world

We understand now a lot about reading, and we understand that in all cultures, there's not much variability. We all have the same brain mechanisms – they are very universal.

Reading always requires specialising of visual system for the shape of letters and connecting them to speech sounds. Even in Chinese (which has characters, rather than letters). 

Nga mihi nui!! 

CoL Teacher Inquiry: Structured Literacy- An Introductory Guide by the International Dyslexia Association

The article 'Structured Literacy: A Introductory Guide' shared that 'structured literacy' has fixed characteristics  BUT it is the teachers knowledge of new scientific and their learners (the successes and their gaps) that is required to adjust this approach on an ongoing basis to best meet the needs of their learners. 

The Characteristics of Structured Literacy 

I found the way that this article defined 'Structured Literacy' really helpful especially the way that is describes the "instructional principles" so have included this definition as part of this blog post as a reminder to myself as I begin to generate ideas for my intervention. 

Structured Literacy is characterized by the provision of systematic, explicit instruction that integrates listening, speaking, reading, and writing and emphasizes the structure of language across the speech sound system (phonology), the writing system (orthography), the structure of sentences (syntax), the meaningful parts of words (morphology), the relationships among words (semantics), and the organization of spoken and written discourse.

The following instructional principles are hallmark features of a Structured Literacy approach to reading:

1. Instructional tasks are modeled and clearly explained, especially when first introduced or when a child is having difficulty.

2. Highly explicit instruction is provided, not only in important foundational skills such as decoding and spelling, but also in higher-level aspects of literacy such as syntax, reading comprehension, and text composition.

3. Important prerequisite skills are taught before students are expected to learn more advanced skills.

4. Meaningful interactions with language occur during the lesson.

5. Multiple opportunities are provided to practice instructional tasks.

6. Well targeted corrective feedback is provided after initial student responses.

7. Student effort is encouraged.

8. Lesson engagement during teacher-led instruction is
monitored and scaffolded.

9. Lesson engagement during independent work is monitored and facilitated.

10. Students successfully complete activities at a high criterion level of performance before moving on to more advanced skills. 

Monitoring progress and making adjustments 

The following is a direct quote from the article that I found interesting as it placed a different perspective on 'structured literacy' and how it can be implemented effectively. 

"After implementing a Structured Literacy approach that is most appropriate for them, schools should use progress monitoring assessments to track student progress and gauge the overall success of instruction and intervention programs. They should make necessary adjustments in instruction and intervention on an ongoing basis. And they should follow emerging scientific evidence on literacy for new findings that may impact educational decision-making.

In addition to paying close attention to scientific research on reading and evidence-based practices, educators sometimes need to exercise judgement in making educational decisions, especially where evidence is lacking. For instance, an intervention with a relatively greater emphasis on phonemic awareness, or multisyllabic word decoding, or fluency, may be more effective for a student with greater needs in one of those respective areas. However, these kinds of judgments will differ across students and even for the same student over time, as a student’s needs shift with progress in intervention."

I think that this is point worth holding onto as I head into the intervention stage of my teacher inquiry as it really places an emphasis on firstly the profiling stage of teacher inquiry, but also the ongoing formative assessments and observations that we make as teachers. It also highlights the importance of teachers being equipped with the knowledge need to make these judgements. I know that for myself, this is a constant journey, especially with literacy as I dive deeper into the literature and learn more about the science of reading. 

The article 'Structured Literacy: An Introductory Guide by the Dyslexia Association can be found here. 

CoL Teacher Inquiry: GEM Literacy - An Introduction to Explicit Teaching of Vocabulary - The Bridge to Language Comprehension

I attended GEM Literacy's webinar "An Introduction to the Explicit Teaching of Vocabulary". Gemma clearly explained the "why" and the "how" of explicit vocabulary instruction. It was both informative and empowering. I was excited to take my new learning and try in out with the tamariki in my year 1 class. I've begun by using the vocabulary strips during our small group reading sessions. I've noticed the children are engaged by the use of a picture on the vocabulary strip (especially my ELL learners). The vocabulary strip has helped to spark up a conversation and is supporting their understanding of the new vocabulary. I look forward to seeing the impact my new learning, thanks to Gemma, has on the tamariki in my class!

 

Check out the photos below of the learning that has been happening thanks to taking part in this webinar.

Here is the outline of the webinar:

• “The Why” of vocabulary instruction
• The relationship between vocabulary and background knowledge and how these underpin oral language and reading comprehension
• Practical and systematic classroom application from Year 1-8 + FREE access to resources (Editable EARLY Reading Vocabulary Strips and our ADVANCED Vocabulary Building Scaffold)

Nga mihi nui!! 

CoL Teacher Inquiry: Teaching Phonemic Awareness in 2022 - A Guide for Educators

I found this guide an interesting read, especially as it focus on teaching phonemic awareness, rather than on a specific programme or approach to teaching phonemic awareness. 

I have highlighted a few points for myself below that will inform the design of my intervention in the coming weeks:

• Small daily doses (a few minutes at a time) in effective phonemic awareness instruction improves a child's ability to read and spell unfamiliar words independently. Most children will make progress with just a few minutes of daily instruction at the start of the literacy lesson.

• Emergent and struggling readers will benefit from phonological awareness instruction. Struggling readers have phonological weakness. Most children who struggle with learning to read have an underdeveloped phonemic awareness when they enter school.  At-risk and struggling readers enter school with poor phonological awareness, which indicates that their phonological processing is less developed than it is in children who are on track for typical reading development. 

• Comparison of present research indicate larger reading gains for students with lessons that include both phonemic awareness and phonics. 

• Each phonological awareness session should begin with a review of the previously taught concept first, then focus on the teaching the next sound position in the sequence (e.g. the final sound). 

• Many students learn new phonemic awareness tasks more quickly, and are more accurate, when
  they use manipulatives. For example, a child might use two small blocks or chips for first sound
  segmentation of the word “map.” First, he repeats the word “map,” pushing one square up under the picture of a map when he says /m/ and pushing another up when he says /ap/. In later lessons when he is able to fully segment words into phonemes, he would push up three chips as he segments each sound /m/ /a/ /p/, and then blends those sounds to say “map". Practice with manipulative  tasks further strengthens phonological processing, which facilitates mapping sounds to letters and, thus, supports memory for written words and instant word recognition.

• Most children pick up syllable awareness quite easily. We do not know if it is necessary to teach syllable-level and onset-level phonological awareness after preschool. BUT the point of phonological awareness activities with syllables is to prepare students for success with phonemic awareness tasks that focus on perceiving individual speech sounds.

• Teaching phonemic awareness separately from phonics and spelling seems to provide the best environment for focusing student attention on the sounds in spoken words.

The following is an example of a phonemics awareness lesson - I will refer back to this as an example of best practice when designing my intervention: 

In the graphic below it shows how manipulatives (like blocks or counters) are used to teach phonemic awareness. I was particularly interested by the way that the 'first sound' example uses only two blocks to segment off the 'first sound' in the words 'sat'. I would have previously used three counters for the three sounds in the words 'sat' and had the learners indicate that the first sound was /s/ by pointing to the first counter. I am curious to find out the 'why?' behind the two counters when segmenting off the first sound.

I found this statement interesting as it highlight where I am at in my journey with teaching phonological awareness. 

"Scripted programmes are great at the beginning BUT children who are at risk of reading problems will need an approach that is systematic and multimodal approach where each concept is taught for accuracy first and then practiced for automaticity."

For the past year, I have implemented the scripted phonological awareness programme 'Heggerty" with my learners. It has been great. It was so needed. I have seen growth in my learners phonological awareness. When I began using this programme, I didn't have the knowledge yet to teach phonological awareness without a scripted programme. It has supported me as a teacher to build my learners phonological awareness and build up my knowledge of teaching phonological awareness. BUT it makes total sense that our learners also need an approach to teaching phonological awareness that is is responsive to where they are at in their learning, that teaches until the learners can accurately achieve a phonological skill and then for automaticity. Unlike, within a scripted programme where the teacher works through the script without pacing the learning to the learners needs. I will be continuing on with 'Heggerty' as I believe it is a great tool for quick daily practice and for getting regularly coverage of all the phonological awareness skills. But I will be taking on board the recommendation to move away from just using a scripted programme when designing my intervention. 

I will definitely be going back and rereading this resource as I plan for my intervention as it is a wealth of knowledge!

If you're interested the Guide for Educators can be read here - Teaching Phonemic Awareness in 2022: A Guide for Educators - by Jane Ashby, Marion McBride, Shira Naftel, Lucy Hart Paulson, David Kilpatrick, Louisa Cook Moats

CoL Teacher Inquiry - A summary of my inquiry so far!

I have spent the last term looking widley at literacy abilities and the gaps of the tamariki in my classroom (and more widely at our junior school and the Maniakalani Kahui Ako). I thought, being the start of the term, it was a good time to pause and summarise my CoL teacher inquiry so far! 

Identifying valued learning outcomes:

I have chosen to focus my inquiry on Achievement Challenge Number 3 - Lift the achievement in reading for all students, with a particular focus on boys and Māori students (both genders) years 1- 13.

Here is the inquiry question I have chosen is:

What strategies and methods can I utilize, based on the science of reading, to lift my students achievement in literacy? 

I have chosen to explore the topic of literacy, rather  exploring reading or writing separately, is this is a reflection of how these two areas are taught together in my classroom. 

Profiling:

I have completed literacy assessments, spoken with my school leadership, our SLT, looked at the Maniakalani Kahui Ako data and explored research and professional development in the area of 'the science of reading'. I have explored this profiling in depth in my previous blog posts. 

Hypothesis generation: Developing a Hunch

• If children have a strong foundation of phonological awareness, then they will be able to identify and manipulate the sounds in words leading to improved literacy achievements. 

• If children are taught the alphabetic code in a systematic way, then they will be able to decode unfamiliar words more effectively, leading to an increase in reading fluency.  

• If children are taught vocabulary through explicit instruction and exposure to rich language, then they will be able to comprehend texts and draw more meaning from what they are reading (or is being read to them). 

• If children experience success in their early literacy learning, then they will be set-up to succeed as readers and writers in the future. 

Academic readings/professional development that have supported my hypothesis generation:

• GEM literacy webinar: An Introduction to the Explicit Teaching of Vocabulary - The Bridge to Language Comprehension
• Teaching Phonemic Awareness in 2022: A Guide for Educators
• Structured Literacy: An Introductory Guide by the International Dyslexia Association
• How the Brain Learns to Read: by Prof. Stanislas Dehaene

Testing the hypothesis:

I have written blog posts over the past term as I have collected data about my tamariki's success' and gaps in the area of literacy. 

I will be completing their second 'Phonological Assessment' and their 10 week BSLA assessment in the coming week and this will provide more detail to inform my intervention. 

I'd also like to take the time to gather some student voice. These will all provide a baseline of data that will be repeated to monitor and assess the success of my intervention. 

Here is the list of the assessments I will/have been using:

• Liz Kanes: Phonological Awareness Assessment: Beginning of each term (as recommended by Liz Kane)
• Better Start Literacy Approach Assessment: Baseline assessment at school entry, 10 week assessment, 20 week assessment (for Tier 2 children only) and end of year assessment for all children. 
• E-Asttle writing: Termly (as part of our in school assessment schedule)
• Student voice (repeated using the same prompts)

As it is the King's Coronation today this quote from Queen Elizabeth seemed appropriate. Seeing change in my own teaching practice and in the achievement of my tamariki takes time. It's often the little steps in the right direction, rather than giant leaps that bring about the most change for our tamariki. 

Thankfully, over the past term, I've had the opportunity to make a few of these small steps in my classroom practice. I have explicitly taught phonological awareness strategies (like syllables) and began using a strategy called connected phoenation. I look forward to diving deep into the academic readings and professional development (mentioned above) and beginning to dream up innovative ways to lift my tamariki's achievement in literacy! 

Nga mihi nui!!