Literacy Matters - Winter 2020

teaching principles (Birsh & Carraker, 2018) because a) they involve making explicit where and how a phonics concept is represented in authentic literature, not only in isolated phonics program work with specific worksheets, and b) because they engage learners in repetitive, carefully structured practices with these concepts that allow them to metacognitively process the reasoning or justification for a concept.

In order to provide teachers with additional examples of analyzed literature and a few phonics concept examples, Table 1 shares a selective overview of classic ACL with three commonly appearing phonics patterns. The author stopped with each book analysis after 15 minutes. As with the example in Figure 1, other concepts could have been chosen but those that seemed to appear most often after an initial screening for concepts are listed.

ACL source & topic

Phonics Concept 1

Phonics concept 2

Phonics concept 3

Soft C 1-syllable: mice, once, voice, choice Multi-syllable: dances, nice.ly Consonant-LE: -CLE: cir.cle -GLE: jig.gle, wig.gle, wrig.gle

Hard C: 1-syllable: cats, can Multi-syllable: cushion*, scream Short vowel Signal –ck: clack, clack, crack, pack, stack

EE 1-syllable: flee, keep, need Multi-syllable: be.tween, feed.ing ER quiv.er, scat.ter, shiv.er, splat.ter, split.ter, win.ter

Hesse, K. (2004). The cats in Krasinski Square . New York: Scholastic Press. Topic: European history, war Denise Fleming (1998). In the small, small pond. New York: Henry Holt Caldecott Award Topic: science, nature Say, A. (2000). The sign painter. St. Charles, IL: Houghton Mifflin Topic: History of advertising, art Banks K. (2006). Max’s words . New York: Frances Foster Books Topic: collecting, word formation

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Short U 1-syllable: brush, but, dust, just, truck Multi-syllable: flush.ed, grum.bled, !rub.bed, !rub.bing, sput.ter.ed AY 1-syllable: day Multi-syllable: a.way, hall.way, may.be

IGH 1-syllable: right, sigh, sight Multi-syllable: light.ed EA long E sound 1-syllable: eat mean, neat, please Multi-syllable: ice.cream Long OO 1-syllable: roots, cool, too Multi-syllable: scoot.ed

Short E 1-syllable: left, less, next, set up, spent, tent, them, then, when, yes, yet Multi-syllable: des.ert, en.ve.lope, him.self, skel.et.on Silent E- Magic E: A-E 1-syllable: came, gave, made, make, snake, trade Multi-syllable: base.ball

Suffix –ing com.ing*, lift.ing, !drag.ging, try.ing, talk.ing*, pour.ing*,scratch.ing, re.mem.ber.ing

Short U 1-syllable: shrugs, sun, hug, but, us, up Multi-syllable: sum.mer, fun.ny

Gary Crew (2004). Memorial . Vancouver, BC, Canada: Simply Read Books. Topic: American History, war

Key: *Word also contains irregular component ! Word contains 1-2-3 Doubling rule . Dots inside multi-syllabic words indicate syllabledivision points

Table 1 Examples of phonics concept analysis of ACL

Pre-Reading Activities with Identified Patterns

The overall purpose of such searches is to have specific words, phonetic and non-phonetic ones identified for specific multisensory structured metacognitive prereading, during and post reading activities. These are presented next. Multisensory Structured Metacognitive Reading Activities Next follow a variety of pre-during-and post reading activities with a focus on phonics concepts to allow students to experience their presence beyond commercial phonics programs. With more of such brief activities that are field- tested by the author and many inservice teachers she trained, Shanahan’s warning of independent reading times being ineffective if not properly guided and supported (Shanahan, et al., 2010) may not be an issue. They are field-tested and can be used alongside many other research-evidenced comprehension strategies (Shanahan, et al., 2010). They provide teachers with a concrete focus on how to emphasize phonics concepts in the context of authentic children’s literature. These practices all implement multisensory structured, metacognitive language

In addition to general pre-reading activities such as preteaching of unfamiliar vocabulary, activating prior knowledge, and curiosity for the content of the reading task, the following pre-reading activities specifically related to the identified phonics concepts may precede the reading practice for about five minutes: 1. Teachers pre-teach 1-2 identified non-phonetic words that appear in the text in a multisensory structured metacognitive way that allows students to gain automaticity in pronouncing and spelling these words correctly. Selected words should be different in what they look and sound like to avoid confusion in the short and long run. Teachers model how to trace each letter of the non-phonetic word in either a tray filled with sand, grits, sugar, flour, rice, shaving cream, or pudding, or students trace letters on any other surface that allows them to see the letters they trace while saying the name of each letter of the non-phonetic word. Examples could be shampoo

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