Literacy Matters - Winter 2020

10-20-minute time periods are available for reading practice with authentic materials, the author suggests passages frommagazines or articles, poems, or picture books. Longer authentic sources such as magazine articles or chapters may need to be limited to a certain number of paragraphs. When teachers and grade level teams have identified which pieces of ACL they would like to use, divide up the sources for phonics component analyses (see Figure 1) and then keep all collected analyses in an electronic file accessible to all teachers at any time. First an overview of phonics concepts that can be recorded is presented next. Phonics Concepts to Identify in Authentic Literature Before introducing the analysis tool to identify 2-3 relevant phonics components in an authentic piece of children’s literature, it is important to have a basic idea for what kinds of essential concepts are needed. The following are part of the K-5 South Carolina College and Career Standards (SCDE, 2015). Phonics concepts to look for in authentic literature are 1. Single vowel concepts in words with a, e, i, o, or u in either short, long or muffled schwaed pronunciations when the vowel is in an unaccented syllable. 2. Vowel teams that consist of two or more letters and make a vowelish sound. These teams can be vowels only such as {oo} as in boot and book, or {ai} as in rain . They can also consist of vowels and consonants such as {eigh} in weight or {igh} in highlight . Most commonly they appear with {y} as in day or joy and {w} as in jaw or snowplow. 3. Consonant concepts that include single consonants with one pronunciation only such as {t} in tag, {p} in pink or with multiple pronunciations with relevant rules such as {c} with a hard pronunciation as in cap or a soft pronunciation as /s/ in city when followed by e, i, or y. 4. Consonant clusters that include blends such as {th} with a voiced pronunciation as in weather or with an unvoiced pronunciation as in thin. They also include di- or trigraphs in initial or final syllable positions such as fly or string or dust or camp. Common clusters with silent letters are also part of this group such as {kn} in knock or kneel, {wr} in wrist or wrap or {wh} as in white or which. 5. Irregular words that do not follow any reading or spelling rules of English are also referred to as ‘non-phonetic’ or ‘red’words and require specific automaticity practices for pronunciation and spelling. They can be high frequency words such build or doesn’t as or less frequent, content- specific words such as soldier or ocean. ( Birsh & Carraker, 2018). 6. Syllable types that allow learners to identify any of seven types of syllables in mono-and multi-syllable words provide the foundation for successful independent, self-reliant reading starting in kindergarten, is a South Carolina College and Career Standard (SCDE, 2015). Syllable types are: 1) single

of using authentic literature of different genres (SCDE, 2015), the author presents a strategy for teachers to quickly identify relevant phonics components in an authentic piece of children’s literature. A variety of pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading activities are shared to deepen students’ efferent experiences with phonics components by reading, discussing and writing about authentic literature while at the same time reinforcing phonics components explicitly that initially are addressed in commercially used programs. Such an approach is also supported by research (Brady, 2011; Cunningham, 2007; Roberts & Meiring, 2006; Spencer, Goldstein, & Kaminski, 2012). All strategies are author- tested over several decades with many award-winning books. Selecting Authentic Children’s Literature In the context of this article, authentic children’s literature (ACL) is defined as reading sources for school-aged audiences K through grade 5 that have not been explicitly composed for explicit phonics practices. They have been written in uncontrolled, original language by authors as fiction, non-fiction narrative and expository texts or poetry with topics in mind that are relevant to younger readers, expand their human experience, and foster intrinsic interest in reading for enjoyment and information (Lynch- Brown & Tomlinson, 2005). That said, readers who work with older age groups who may be at lower Kindergarten through grade 5 reading levels or who work with students at higher reading levels can implement the following shared strategies with ACL relevant to their age and reading skill groups. Infusing ACL to strengthen students’ phonics skills bears several benefits: (1) history, social studies, and science topics as well as culture-sensitive topics can be reinforced by using books, newspaper articles, or magazine passages, while also reinforcing phonics concepts; (2) classic book award winners for different genres and topics such as Caldecott Award winners for best picture books, Bachelder Award winners for literature from other countries translated into English, the Pura Belpr é Award winners for best Latino-culture based books, or Children’s Literature Legacy Award winners for American authors who have made significant contributions to children’s literature over a period of time can easily be integrated into practices that strengthen students’ phonics skills while giving students the experience of reading ‘real books’ by ‘real authors’ that use structures and vocabulary that are unique to specific genre (Serafini, 2011; Shanahan, Fisher & Frey, 2012) The selection of relevant, appropriate, culture-sensitive, authentic reading resources depends on factors such as curriculum requirements for genres and content to be read about and learned, students’ reading abilities, time available for reading practice, and the availability of reading sources in electronic or 3D formats. Since elementary school teachers usually have the benefit of teaching all content areas to their class, they know a) which concepts are currently and were recently addressed in the commercial phonics program and b) which other content area topics are relevant simultaneously. This allows them to select relevant content and literacy-related reading sources. If only

Reading Matters Authenticity Matters

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