Road to the Code: A Phonological Awareness Program for Young Children - Softcover

Blachman Ph.D., Benita; Ball Ph.D., Eileen; Black M.S., Rochella; Tangel Ph.D., Darlene

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1557664382 ISBN 13: 9781557664389

Publisher: Brookes Publishing, 2000

Synopsis

For helping kindergartners and first graders who are having difficulty on their early literacy skills, Road to the Code is a successful, 11-week program for teaching phonemic awareness and letter sound correspondence. Developmentally sequenced, each of the 44 15- to 20-minute lessons features three activities — Say-It-and-Move-It, Letter Name and Sound Instruction, and Phonological Awareness Practice — that give students repeated opportunities to practice and enhance their beginning reading and spelling abilities. Road to the Code is backed by more than 10 years of study in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms.

Detailed scripted instructions and reproducible materials — such as Alphabet Picture and Sound Bingo cards — make this program easy for teachers to use. Teachers have the flexibility to work with students individually or in small groups and may adjust the amount of time it takes for a student to complete the program. With these proven phonological awareness activities, educators can confidently intervene before children have a chance to fail.

About this title

About the Author

Benita A. Blachman, Ph.D., is a professor in the Reading and Language Arts Department and Coordinator of the Graduate Program in Learning Disabilities in the School of Education at Syracuse University. She also holds a courtesy appointment in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Department. She has a doctoral degree in educational psychology from the University of Connecticut and is a former special education teacher, reading specialist, and learning disabilities consultant. She has published extensively in the area of early literacy, focusing her research on early intervention to prevent reading failure and on the factors that predict reading achievement. Dr. Blachman is currently directing a project at Syracuse University (in collaboration with researchers at Yale Medical School and the University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center) funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to investigate the influence of intensive reading intervention on patterns of brain activation in young children. Dr. Blachman has served on the professional advisory boards of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the National Dyslexia Research Foundation, and the Neuhaus Center. Her edited book Foundations of Reading Acquisition and Dyslexia: Implications for Early Intervention was published recently by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Eileen Wynne Ball, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where she was the recipient of two major teaching awards. She has a doctoral degree in education from Syracuse University, where she also earned a master's degree in urban education. Before joining the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dr. Ball received a second master's degree from Northeastern Illinois University and taught at Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois; she also taught at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, where she created and coordinated Le Moyne's program for special education teachers. Prior to her university work, Dr. Ball was an urban classroom teacher for 12 years. In Chicago, she directed and taught in The Parents School, an early model in alternative urban education, and she continues to do educational consulting nationally. Her research in phonological awareness has won her grants and fellowships from the National Dyslexia Research Association, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, and the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Ball is returning to UIC after completing another 2 years as a full-time third-grade classroom teacher during which she deepened her belief that classroom practices and classroom teachers must inform educational research.

Rochella Black, M.S., has been a kindergarten teacher, first-grade teacher, and special education resource teacher for 24 years, teaching in both the inner-city schools of Syracuse, New York, and the suburban schools in Northport-East Northport, New York. Over the years, she has also served as a private tutor for students of all ages who were experiencing difficulty learning to read. In addition, Ms. Black was the project coordinator of the large-scale kindergarten and first-grade reading research project directed by Dr. Blachman during which the Road to the Code manual was developed and evaluated. She has presented numerous seminars and in-service courses for teachers on the effectiveness of specific activities for developing phonological awareness in children at the beginning stages of reading. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in social studies and two master's degrees from Syracuse University in elementary education and special education with a specialization in learning disabilities. Her publications have appeared in Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Darlene M. Tangel, Ph.D., is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Reading and Language Arts Department at Syracuse University. She has taught graduate courses in learning disabilities and in language disorders at Syracuse University and has been a reading specialist in the Oriskany Public Schools for more than 20 years, where she also serves as the Chair of Special Education and the Chair of Preschool Special Education. Her research interests include early reading acquisition and invented spelling, alternative reading curricula for children at risk for reading failure, and adult literacy. She has developed training materials for the American Federation of Teachers and has extensive experience conducting teacher training workshops. The focus of these workshops is translating research into practical application for classroom use. Her most recent publications have appeared in the Journal of Reading Behavior and Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal. Drs. Tangel and Blachman were awarded the Dina Feitelson Research Award by the International Reading Association for their research on invented spelling.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from Road to the Code: A Phonological Awareness Program for Young Children, by Benita A. Blachman, Ph.D., Eileen Wynne Ball, Ph.D., Rochella Black, M.S., & Darlene M. Tangel, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2000 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Say-It-and-Move-It

Materials: 1 Say-It-and-Move-It sheet per child

2 disks or tiles per child

Today you will work on single sounds and single sounds repeated:

• /a/
• /s/
• /t/
• /t/ ^ /t/
(^ indicates a slight pause)

To begin the lesson, each child has one Say-It-and-Move-It sheet and one disk. You should also have a Say-It-and-Move-It sheet facing the children, so it is actually upside down for you.

For this first lesson, when you give directions or ask questions, it is expected that the children will respond as a group.

Teacher (T) says: We are going to play a game called Say-It-and-Move-It. What's the name of the game?

Wait for the students to respond with "Say-It-and-Move-It."

T:Watch me and listen. I'm going to say a sound. /a/.

Remember to use the short sound of a as in apple.

T:Now I'm going to say it and move it.

Demonstrate for the children by placing your finger on a disk, drawing out (holding) the /aaa/ sound, and simultaneously moving the disk below the thick black line to the black dot at the left hand side of the arrow at the bottom of the Say-It-and-Move-It sheet. Then point to the disk and say,

T:/a/, one sound.

T: Now I'm going to sweep the disk back to the __________(clown, boat, or whatever object is pictured).

Move the disk back to the pictured object.

T: Now it's your turn. Listen first.

T: Say /a/.

T: What sound?

Wait for a response from the children.

T: Now, say it and move it.

If the children have difficulty, this is a good time for you to model the correct response again. Say, Watch me, and then demonstrate Say-It-and-Move-It, just as you did earlier. The children should then repeat the activity with /a/, as described above.

T: Let's try some different sounds.

Use the same procedure as above for introducing /s/ and /t/. Hiss with the /s/, and be careful with the /t/. Don't elongate the /t/ when you say it and move it. Say it quickly. Sometimes it is helpful to refer to these stop sounds as "hot sounds" so that the children "get off" of these sounds quickly.

T: Now we're going to try something even harder.

Take a second disk.

T: Are you ready? Listen and watch me.

I'm going to say a sound, but I may say it more than once.

T: /t/ ^ /t/

T: Now I'm going to say it and move it.

/t/ ^ /t/.

Move one disk below the line as you quickly say the first /t/, and move the second disk as you say the second /t/.

Move your finger from left to right under the two disks and say,

T: Two sounds.

Sweep the disks back to the picture.

Give each child a second disk.

T: Now I want you to try it.

T: Ready? Listen.

Say, /t/ ^ /t/.

Wait for the children to respond.

T: Now, say it and move it.

Again, wait for the children to respond and then say,

T: How many sounds?

If the children don't respond correctly, you should say,

T: Two sounds.

Have the group or individual children try various combinations of /a/, /t/, and /s/, presented as single sounds or sounds repeated.

Letter Name and Sound Instruction

Introducing the Letter "a"

Materials: Large alphabet picture card of "a"

Introduce the large alphabet picture card of the letter a (both large and small alphabet picture cards are in the Materials Section of the manual). It will add interest if you have colored this card before you show it to the children. If you do color the card, make sure that you retain a black and white copy of the picture card that can be photocopied for the children to color in later lessons.

You might tell the children that one sound that this letter makes is /a/ (as in apple, ant, and ask). Talk about what you see in the alphabet picture card. Point to various parts of the picture and isolate the /a/ sound in ant and apple (e.g., "Apple, do you hear the /a/ in apple?"). Help the children think of other words that start with the /a/ sound.

Take turns asking children the letter's name. Take turns asking children the letter's sound. Then mix the two (letter name and sound).

Phonological Awareness Practice

Sound Categorization by Rhyme

Materials: 3–5 sets of Sound Categorization by Rhyme cards

Recipe box (optional, see Teacher Notes)

Index tabs (optional, see Teacher Notes)

To Play: Select a set of Sound Categorization by Rhyme cards. The players must determine which one of four pictures does not belong in a set. Place the four pictures on the table in front of the children while singing or saying the following verse:

One of these things is not like the others.
One of these things does not belong.
One of these things is not like the others.
Which of these things does not belong?

After the cards have been placed on the table and the song has been sung, ask the children to name each picture. You may need to name the pictures along with the children. Then ask the question, "Which one does not belong?"

Have the children tell which card doesn't belong and have them tell why (or supply the rule). For example, if the objects pictured were hat, cat, fish, and bat, the children might say, "Hat, cat, and bat all rhyme or end the same, but fish doesn't."

In developing categorization by rhyme, the children may attempt to classify by some other principle, for example, by color or semantic category (e.g., farm animals). Acknowledge the correctness of their observations, and continue with a statement such as, "Yes, that's right, but I'm thinking of a different rule. Can you think of my rule?"

Excerpted from Road to the Code: A Phonological Awareness Program for Young Children, by Benita A. Blachman, Ph.D., Eileen Wynne Ball, Ph.D., Rochella Black, M.S., & Darlene M. Tangel, Ph.D.

Copyright © 2000 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Edition details

• Publisher: Brookes Publishing
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557664382
• ISBN 13: 9781557664389
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• Number of pages: 416