Literacy Matters - Winter 2020

the piece of literature such as “ What would you have handled the situation if you were (insert character) and why?” or “What caused Rosa Parks to boycott?” For any writing prompts, key words to be used can be provided.

STEP 1 : Select the ACL source you want to use.

• Consider award winners in different categories presented by the American Library Association (ww.ala.org) • Consider students’reading skills, interests, content area connections STEP 2 : Identify relevant phonics concepts, irregular words and/or unique features . • Either briefly search for 2-3 phonics concepts and that connect to what is currently covered in the phonics program you are to use in your setting • Or briefly screen the book for 2-3 phonics concepts that are common in the book but not necessarily a topic in the phonics program at the time so that working with this book serves as a contextualized review of previously learned content or the introduction to a new pattern that the phonics program may introduce later. • Briefly screen the book for irregular words and unique features STEP 3 : Collect findings on Phonics Analysis Chart (see Figure 1 in this text) STEP 4 : Select relevant phonics concept, irregular word pattern and/or unique language features . • For such decisions, keep in mind – learner needs – time constraints and • Only combine what looks and sounds different to avoid confusion. • Only focus on similar concepts such as {oi} vs. {oy} if you are sure that students have a solid command of each concept individually. STEP 5 : Select learning/practice activities that increase learners’confidence in applying knowledge of these concepts in any personal and school-related reading or writing engagements. • Consider individual learner needs and group students according to skill/ support needs. • Alternate between activities at a healthy pace scaffolding from less to more challenging tasks. • Explicitly help students realize their accomplishments in working with the authentic reading material and how what they learn in their commercial literacy programs has real life implications. • Consider“phonics detective work”as independent or homework assignments with ACL choosing from a variety of texts once you/your colleagues have analyzed a larger selection of relevant books for targeted practices of the kind described in this article. STEP 6 : Save your analysis chart/s in an electronic ACL Phonics Analysis Resource Folder . STEP 7 : Encourage other colleagues to contribute to a grade level Phonics Analysis Resource Folder . Figure 2 Procedural steps to infuse ACL into phonic-based instruction – whether exposure to these language features presents an introduction to a new concept or a first or repeated review

3. Students can engage in teacher-guided or group-guided discussions about the text with the requirement for each participant to use specific phonics-concept words from the reading or other words with the same concept at 2-3 times during a discussion period. Such oral use of phonics-concept words allows students to realize how such patterns frequently appear in meaningful academic oral conversation and not only in the context of commercial reading programs. Teachers can provide concept-related words on prompting cards for each student that are placed into a small box or jar once used. During team discussions, one team member, similar to literature circle task designations (Daniels, 2002), can keep peers on track to use their prompting cards. Students can engage in oral fluency practice when reading their poems repeatedly to themselves, or even audio-record them for practice until they feel comfortable reading them with proper intonation and pace to peers. Summary of Procedural Steps for Infusing Phonics Instruction with ACL Figure 2 provides teachers with a quick overview of procedural steps to consider when infusing ACL into explicit multisensory phonics instruction. This overview is to assist individual teachers and possibly grade level teams to start analyzing essential, grade level-relevant ACL for phonics elements, rule breaker words, and other unique features in an attempt to improve students’ fluency and reading comprehension skills. Conclusion This article offers ideas to infuse ACL into elementary phonics curricula to meet requirements of explicit phonics knowledge and students’ ability to summarize and reflect on authentic texts (SCDE, 2015) by introducing a field-tested analysis tool to identify relevant phonics components in ACL. The shared strategies related to the identified phonics components in ACL implement research-evidenced explicit multisensory, structured metacognitive principles (Birsh & Carraker, 2018) to be able to expose students to authentic reading, writing, and speaking experiences that offer continued practice beyond what was learned in commercial phonics programs. Overall, the content of this article is a response to teachers’ requests for strategies that provide a meaningful ‘learning bridge’ between commercial explicit phonics instruction and existing ACL so that students can become independent, successful readers who know how to self-manage arising reading and comprehension challenges because they were able to gain transitory phonics- linked practices with ACL (Shanahan, et al., 2010).

Reading Matters Authenticity Matters

Literacy Matters | Volume 20 • Winter 2020 | scira.org | 17

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