Hands-on, Practical Guidance for Educators

From math, literacy, equity, multilingual learners, and SEL, to assessment, school counseling, and education leadership, our books are research-based and authored by experts on topics most relevant to what educators are facing today.

Look Inside

Strategies and Lessons for Improving Basic Early Literacy Skills

By: Bob Algozzine, Mary Beth Marr, Tina McClanahan, Emme Barnes

Research-proven strategies to foster early literacy success!

This hands-on guide shows teachers how to use research-based strategies and structured lessons to teach essential skills for literacy success in Grades K–3. Designed by literacy specialists and teachers, the activities build proficiency in letter naming, initial sound fluency, phoneme segmentation, nonsense word fluency, and oral reading. Addressing the needs of a diverse classroom, this book offers:

Assessment guidelines and tools that inform instruction and adjust teaching to support individual learning needs
An array of ready-to-use strategies, tips, and reproducibles
Research on teaching early literacy skills to all students

Full description

Look Inside

Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12
ISBN: 9781412952866
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2008
Page Count: 232
Publication date: April 07, 2014

Select Format:

Review Copies

Review copies may be requested by individuals planning to purchase 10 or more copies for a team or considering a book for adoption in a higher ed course. To request a review copy, contact sales@corwin.com.

Description

"The lessons build on one another and are clearly sequenced from teacher-led instruction to group instruction to independent practice. Readers will find suggested accountability and differentiated instruction ideas right at their fingertips. It is hard to find books targeted to the early grades, and this one covers many areas important to the K–3 educator."
—Tanya Phaturos, Reading Specialist
Park Elementary School, Holbrook, AZ

"Emphasizes practical activities presented in a consistent format that can be used with students to enhance their literacy development."
—Wanda Mangum, Language Arts Instructional Coach
Gwinnett County Public Schools, GA

Research-proven strategies to foster early literacy success!

Building strong literacy skills is the basis for helping all children read by the end of third grade. This hands-on guide shows teachers how to use research-based strategies and structured lessons to teach essential skills for literacy success in Grades K–3. The activities are designed by literacy specialists and teachers to build proficiency in four key areas: recognizing and naming letters, hearing and manipulating sounds in words, associating sounds with letters and using them to form words, and reading words in connected text effortlessly.

Addressing the needs of a diverse classroom, this book offers:

Assessment guidelines and tools that inform instruction and help adjust teaching to support individual learning needs
An array of ready-to-use strategies, tips, and reproducibles
Research on teaching early literacy skills to all students

This book is designed for educators and other professionals who teach children of any proficiency level, but is equally appropriate for teaching students who experience difficulty in learning to read.

Key features

Practical, ready-to-use strategies and lessons for teaching early reading skills
Designed for use with students with any type of reading difficulty, including students with learning disabilities
Developed to address skill deficits identified by the widely used DIBELS measurements
Grounded in extensive research in teaching reading to students with learning difficulties
Includes tips for use in a variety of settings and reproducibles for all lessons

Author(s)

Bob Algozzine

Bob Algozzine is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of North Carolina and project codirector of the U.S. Department of Education-supported Behavior and Reading Improvement Center. With 25 years of research experience and extensive firsthand knowledge of teaching students classified as seriously emotionally disturbed, Algozzine is a uniquely qualified staff developer, conference speaker, and teacher of behavior management and effective teaching courses. He is active in special education practice as a partner and collaborator with professionals in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools in North Carolina and as an editor of several journals focused on special education. Algozzine has written more than 250 manuscripts on special education topics, including many books and textbooks on how to manage emotional and social behavior problems.

Mary Beth Marr

Mary Beth Marr is an associate professor in education at Meredith College, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in literacy education. She previously served as a research associate with the Behavior and Reading Improvement Center at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Marr, whose research interests focus on early literacy and struggling readers, received her doctorate in reading education from the University of Minnesota.

Tina McClanahan

Tina McClanahan has worked for the Charlotte Mecklenburg School (CMS) system since her graduation from West Virginia State College. During her time with CMS she has held the positions of classroom teacher, literacy teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, K–2 literacy facilitator, and is currently a Pre–K literacy facilitator. McClanahan has also worked for the Behavior and Reading Improvement Center at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte as a Center Support Coordinating teacher and received national board status as an Early Childhood Generalist (ECGEN) in 2001.

Emme Barnes

Emme Barnes is a literacy facilitator in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System working with teachers, students, and parents to develop literacy skills in elementary students. She has taught first and second grade classes in Title One, large suburban schools, and at The American School of Madrid. Barnes is on the advisory board for Reach Out and Read Charlotte and is a past recipient of the Ten Outstanding Young Charlotteans Award given by the Charlotte Jaycees for her work with literacy in the community. She earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master of education degree in reading, language, and literacy from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

1. Introduction

Organizational Framework

Using Assessment to Inform Instruction

Incorporating Basic Early Literacy Skills (BELS) Into the Literacy Block

Teaching Effectively

Early Literacy Instruction in Perspective

Building Early Literacy Skills

2. Letter Naming Fluency

Activity 1: Distinguishing Between Letters and Non-Letters

Activity 2a: Distinguishing Letter Forms (Tall Letters)

Activity 2b: Distinguishing Letter Forms (Short Circular Letters)

Activity 2c: Distinguishing Letter Forms (Short Stick Letters)

Activity 2d: Distinguishing Letter Forms (Short Hump Letters)

Activity 2e: Distinguishing Letter Forms (Hanging Letters)

Activity 3: Distinguishing Same and Different Letters

Activity 4a: Distinguishing Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

Activity 4b: Distinguishing Uppercase and Lowercase Letters (Using American Sign Language)

Activity 4c: Distinguishing Uppercase and Lowercase Letters (Using Sense of Touch)

Activity 5: Distinguishing Letters/Sounds (Using Sense of Touch)

3. Initial Sound Fluency

Activity 6a: Silly Sentence s—Part 1

Activity 6b: Silly Sentences—Part 2

Activity 7: Picture/Sound Charts

Activity 8a: Letter/Sound Books—Part 1

Activity 8b: Letter/Sound Books—Part 2

Activity 9: Sound Collages

Activity 10: Sound Identification Game

Activity 11: Picture/Sound Identification Game

4. Phoneme Segmentation Fluency

Activity 12: “Stretching” Sounds in Words

Activity 13a: Elkonin Boxes—Identifying Sounds with Fingers

Activity 13b: Elkonin Boxes—Pushing Sounds

Activity 13c: Elkonin Boxes—Sound Boxes

Activity 13d: Elkonin Boxes—Transition Boxes

Activity 13e: Elkonin Boxes—Letter Boxes

5. Nonsense Word Fluency

Activity 14: Distinguishing Letters/Sounds (Using Sense of Touch)

Activity 15a: Sound/Letter BINGO

Activity 15b: Letter/Sound BINGO

Activity 16: Sound Identification Game

Activity 17: Making and Breaking using Magnetic Letters

Activity 18a: Blending (VC)

Activity 18b: Blending (CVC)

Activity 19: Sorting Beginning Consonant Sounds

Activity 20: Sound Line

Activity 21: Word Wheels

Activity 22: Flip Books

Activity 23: Slide-a-Word

Activity 24: Word Scramble

Activity 25: Word Maker

Activity 26: Roll The Dice

Activity 27: Match!

Activity 28: Ringo!

Activity 29: Go Fish

6. Oral Reading Fluency

Activity 30a: Reading Punctuation

Activity 30b: Reading Punctuation: Period, Exclamation Point, Question Mark

Activity 31: Reading Text in Phrases to Promote Fluency

Activity 32: Reading Fine and Bold Printed Text as Author Intended

Activity 3: Reading fine and bold printed text as author intended

Activity 33: Reading Dialogue

References and Resources

Index

Reviews

"The lessons build on one another and are clearly sequenced from teacher-led instruction to group instruction to independent practice. This is a great resource for schools that use DIBELS as their assessment, because it is so closely aligned with the same targeted skills. Readers will find suggested accountability and differentiated instruction ideas right at their fingertips. It is hard to find books targeted to the early grades, and this one covers many areas important to the K-3 educator."

Tanya Phaturos, Reading Specialist
Park Elementary School, Holbrook, AZ

"Emphasizes practical activities presented in a consistent format that can be used with students to enhance their literacy development."

Wanda Mangum, Language Arts Instructional Coach
Gwinnett County Public Schools, GA

"A teacher could pick up this book and immediately use the activities to help children improve. There is differentiation for each activity, ensuring that this book can be used successfully in the classroom."

Jessie Fries-Kraemer, Literacy Teacher
Eubank Elementary School, Albuquerque, NM

Other Titles in: At-Risk | Literacy, K-12 | English/Language Arts (Middle/High School)

Select Format: