Time Tested Early Literacy Strategies - Part 1

 "Teacher, how do you spell....?"

"What does this word say?"

When early readers and writers hear "Just sound it out", do they know what you are talking about? How can we support them further with early literacy and the risk-taking it requires? For some students the anxiety they feel shuts down their learning. 

Over the last 20 years working as a classroom teacher and early intervention specialist, I've tried a lot of different strategies to improve phonological awareness and decoding. 

Below are two easy strategies I've refined over the years to lessen student anxiety and encourage both reading and writing.

#1. Supporting Writing

 Develop an environment where risk taking is admired, and mistakes are part of learning. 

This means modelling mistakes. As the teacher, you can purposely make "mistakes" in various ways (and there is ALWAYS a student to point it out!) 

When this happens, I make a deal with students : "If you don't mind when I make mistakes, then I won't mind when you do." And then we shake on it. They find this very funny, and it reassures them that I'm serious.

Between my purposeful mistakes and accidental mistakes, my students truly understand that even grown ups make mistakes! 

We also talk about how guessing makes your brain grow even if your answer was wrong! 

#2. Supporting Writing

Add humor and props to your writing lessons to lessen anxiety.

I have a puppet called Poppy that is used daily to model phonetic writing during whole group lessons. The key is using a puppet where your hand can manipulate the mouth, such as a sock puppet. This way you can make the mouth move in exaggerated ways.

I introduce Poppy as a class "pet" who has a special way of talking. He always talks very 

ssssssss-lllllll-owwww-llll-yyyy!

Students volunteer words, and Poppy will  s-t-r-e-t-c-h  that word out as long as possible. We all practice "talking like Poppy".  Everyone thinks this is hilarious! 

Next, we try to write down the sounds of the words he says, which is quite easy because he talks so slowly. 

Later, when students ask "Teacher, how do you spell.......?" we respond, "Say it like Poppy!" 

Often I will see students stretching out words later, while moving their hands as though they held a puppet, or they will remind each other to "Say it like Poppy!". The novelty of the puppet really solidifies the process and lessens the anxiety of guessing. 

#3. Supporting Reading

Add fun and mystery to your reading strategies to lessen anxiety.

Do you have students who decode the first sound of a word, and then randomly guess  any word that begins with that letter, even if it makes no sense in the story? 

The good news: they are decoding beginning sounds. 

The problem: they are skipping the rest of the word and not self-correcting for meaning!

 Just as we teach students to point to each word when they are skipping words in a sentence, I teach them to isolate each letter in a word. 

In addition to the usual Guided Reading strategies, I teach them to simply use their finger as a "snake" that covers and slides across the word, revealing one letter at a time. They say the sounds from each letter and adjust for special combinations. 

Another idea that I have found even more effective is using word cards in a way that isolates each sound. Students simply slide a word out of a long envelope, saying each sound as it appears. 

This process forces them to isolate each sound and reinforces letter sounds, letter combination rules, digraphs, etc. Here's a video of how it works - note how she changes her sound when she sees the second "o":

Confession: I used this same technique during my teaching practicum over 20 years ago, so it's not new! However it has been well tested over the years and I've seen it improve student reading drastically - largely because they are enjoying the "mystery game" quality of discovering the word, which once again lessens their anxiety and motivates with fun. 

You can try these yourself with just a simple homemade envelope and word strips. If you'd like to grab them already made, they are available as part of my interactive Reading and Writing Bugs program. Click HERE to see more details. 

Do you have any ideas for reading strategies or for lessening anxiety in class? I'd love to hear about it!