Solving Reading Challenges With Structured Literacy: Episode 78

Watch episode 76 on Letter Sound Blending - https://youtu.be/MU2t1DHD8VM?si=30GAWCGO6Xxnnt8N.

TD Flenaugh discusses structured literacy, a method aligned with the science of reading, aimed at solving reading issues in 95% of children if practiced systematically five days a week.

This episode involves four of the 8 stages of structured literacy: phonological awareness, reviewing letter sounds, letter sound blending (decoding) , and encoding (dictation).

TERMS

Phonological awareness focuses on manipulating sounds in words, which includes the highest stage of phonemic awareness.

Phoneme - The smallest unit of sound in a word

Letter-sound blending (decoding) - connecting sounds to letters to sound out words or to read a word using letter and sound rules.

Encoding (dictation) - involves writing words based on their sounds.

Flenaugh emphasizes the importance of not correcting children while they write to avoid discouragement and instead highlighting what they did well. Resources and further support are available at fallingforlearning.com.

T.D. Flenaugh promotes her books, "The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method" and "The R.E.W.R.I.T.E. Method Workbook," to help children improve their writing skills - https://fallingforlearning.com/home-9066.

Transcript

TD Flenaugh: 0:00

Good afternoon, evening, wherever you are in the world, this is Falling for Learning Podcast. Today we're going to talk about reading issues, like, how do we solve these reading issues that our students have? And today, we're going to really dig into structured literacy, which aligns with the science of reading. So we're going to demonstrate four stages of the structured literacy lesson, and this approach is going to help your child. 95% of the kids, be able to read well and write well if it's done systematically and it's done in you know, regularly, five days a week, and so let's get into it. Hi. Thank you so much for joining the Falling for Learning Podcast. We have this podcast to help parents and caregivers with having the resources, strategies and tools needed to make sure that their children are on track for learning and to stay on track for success. Adjustments need to be made. Okay? So here we are. I have my handy dandy, you know, what do you call this post-it poster size, right? So we're going to get into the science of reading, specifically the structured literacy approach. Now, if you missed my last video that really focuses in on letter sound blending, then it's going to be linked in the show notes. So make sure that you, you know, follow that up. But this is going to start with something called phonological awareness. Now, phonological awareness strictly, strictly focuses on listening to the sounds and words. So phonological awareness, we're little wonky here. Let me sit down for this one. Actually, okay, so this so just to let you know, phonological awareness has to do with being able to hear and move around or manipulate the sounds in words, phonological awareness is this huge type of umbrella that covers word level, um phonological awareness, to be able to hear the sound and words. It also follows the ability to break apart word parts, so if we're and it also has to do with syllables, and then it has to do with onset and rhyme. So that's the beginning sound in the word, and then the rest of it, being able to split that up and hear the different parts. And also the very top of that is phonemic awareness, which has to do with being able to hear the individual sounds. Phoneme is the smallest amount of sound in a word. So I'm going to start with phonemic awareness, giving you the example. So I just listed it. Now I'm going to give you the examples. So if I ask you to break apart the word cat into its individual sounds, or phonemes the smallest sound it would be at cat. So those are all the individual sounds in cat, the smallest amount of sounds at cat, okay, so that is the highest level, and that ability to hear and move around sounds and words is a very strong predictor about whether or not your child can read. Do the letter sound blending right? Notice, I'm not using Lenny letters, because this is the precursor for that. Very clearly, I want you to know that you're not going to use this in isolation. If you have the kids blend sounds, you know, without letters, and just say, dot, dot, dot, and then you're like, Okay, I taught reading. Nope. You gotta do the rest of it. So structured literacy begins with phonemic awareness. But again, if your child is not ready for phonemic awareness, they're not able to break apart the sounds in the word cat at they're not able to do that. You may take a step backward and then have them just give you the first sound and and then the rest of the word. So that's the onset in rhyme. And rhyme, in this case, does not mean, like rhyming words, that's another level. So rhyme is just r, i, m, e, the rest of the sounds. So these, again, these vocabulary words are in the show notes, just so that you would understand. What I'm saying, and it's not too like above your head or, you know, I have extensive training in it, and that's fine. And of course, there's an opportunity for you to work with me. If you need more support with this, with your kids or your students, I'll be glad to help you. But these is, you know, just an introduction to get you to know so onset and rhyme would be at, so the first sound is in cat, and the rest of it is at, right? So that's the rhyme, the rest of it, the rest of the sounds, okay? And if they're not able to do that, you may need to break it down into the word parts, you know, or syllables, right? So I just made a distinction between word parts and syllables, because word parts, if you have, for example, a compound word, two words put together, such as catnip, there's cat and there's nip catnip, you put it together so that first so a level down right from onset and rhyme, right? If you can't do all the sounds together, would be then you move down to onset and rhyme. And if you aren't able to do that, then you can move down to, if your child's not able to do that, move down to word parts. So if I have the word cat nip, and I'll say the word catnip real quick, and then they could break it down into the different parts cat and nip right two parts. And that is a way to help them. Gotta help move them up to where they're able to hear the very smallest sounds, the phonemes and words. So there is more to this. And again, I will do more videos and even link some articles so that you could know more about that. But that is one way to make sure that your child understands, you know, they're able to fill in those missing gaps that are not able allowing them to be able to sound outward. Sometimes kids can't sound out words, and it's because they can't even hear the sounds and words. And that is where we do word play and different activities like that to help solve that problem. And again, it's not taught in isolation. You do these activities. So I will give you three words so you can see what it looks like for students, I would give them a model, okay? I want you to break down the sounds and words. And the reason why we do this, and I explained to my students, why is because it helps us to hear the individual sounds and words, and later on, when we're connecting it with letters, it's going to help us with our spelling. It's going to help us with our reading. Okay, so the first word is cat, and you're going to watch me all the sounds of the word cat, and I do a finger stretch cat. Now, when I do it for my students, I do it backwards. I'm looking at my fingers this way. They're doing, they're they're going from right to left. But when they're looking at me and facing me, they go left to right. So that's why I do it, like backwards, so that the way they see it is from right to left, like the way that the way we write. Okay, I'm saying right to left, left to right, you know what I mean, the way that we write. Um, so the next thing that you're going to do, now that I've done it with them or shown them what to do, they did all the sounds. Now I give them words, and they're going to do it. And again, when we're talking to kids, you want to stay in a you know, when early readers, you want to stay in the same type of sound and words. So today, if I'm going to focus in on Ah, words with the sound ah. So my first word is taught the little tot ran around the playground. So, like short for, you know, for a toddler. So anyway, um, there's also tater tots. But anyway, so taught, and they give me the sounds, and we do it together. My voice is in it. Taught, right? And so then eventually we want them doing it on their own. So you give them the word dot, and then they could say the dot. And again, we're not using letter sounds. We're not using letter sounds yet. No letters. That's the next step. So another way to do this, so this is where I gave them the word, and then they broke down the word, and that segmentation again, phoneme segmentation, or breaking it down. The other way that you could do it is you give them all the sounds spread apart, and they say it fast into one word. So if I tell them the word, so, give me the word ah, and they're able to say rot, right? Or I'm. Going to give you the sounds, ooh, ah, and they could say lot. So that, or those, are two sides of phonemic awareness, where I give them the word, they break down the word or segment it. I give them the individual sounds in one word, and they blend those sounds together. So I you will hear me saying, blend a lot. There is phonemic, you know, phonemic awareness blending, right? So I'm not using any letters. I'm just using the sounds. It's just my voice. Okay, so let's get into the second part of this is where we actually are using cards. So we're using cards to reinforce the letter sounds so the so you say, O spells, ah, F spells. There's the rest of my letters here. They are, a spells, ah, sales. Ah, okay, so again, with early readers, you might only be reviewing some of the words. Of course, your child might be older or something, so you may want to, and I said words earlier, but you may want to review all of the sounds right? So C says, I'm gonna make sure it's like going backwards. C says or, and I like to say spells, because, again, we're connecting that later on. They're going to be using these skills, these moving around and listening to the sounds and words. We're going to be moving this to letters, and we are moving it to letters. So I want to say spells, right? See spells, alright? So later on the other part to do with this students, another side of this is where you give them the sound, and they tell you the letter, which letter spell, which letter spells? And then they'll say, C, right. Like, very good. C, what letter spells, ah. And they'll say, Oh, right. And again, if they don't know it, you help correct them. Again. Always Be patient. They're going to be making mistakes. Part of the learning process is making mistakes. Remind them of this. Keep it light, keep it fun, alright, but keep it focused. Okay, alright, so the third part of this, right? So we did our letter sound blending. I mean, we did our a sound blending, right? With no letters. We're going to get into the letter sound blending now. And so again, you want to keep everything connected. Notice words earlier that I did the oral blending, like just with the words the sounds using my um, my mouth articulate those sounds. Now we're going to actually use those same words, or words like it um, to actually do the letter sound blending. So I'm going to move out the way. I'm a little all over the place today, but let me tell you, I'm going to take a quick break, and then I'm going to come back into the letter sound blending. Gotcha. Okay? You the United States, 75% of children don't know how to write. Well, add that to the fact that so many people out there are trying to silence the voices of those who have been oppressed and trying to prevent them from telling their story. Who's going to tell your story? If your child doesn't know how to write, well, I have two books to address this issue, the rewrite method and the rewrite method workbook. We tend to make sure that parents know what to do, that educators know what to do to get their children to write better and just not write better, but love to write. Make sure that your next generation could tell their story and they won't be silenced. Go to falling for learning.com today to purchase your set. Okay, here we go. So hopefully it's a little bit more clear, a little better today, okay, so than it was at the beginning. So we have the phonological awareness. Was the first step review letter sounds. So we did that. Our next part that we're going to be doing is we're going to be doing the letter sound blending. So So I have a video that we did in depth about this one already on our podcast, Episode 75 I believe it was, but it will be in the show notes. You don't even have to guess. It'll be there for you. Alright? So the next thing for our letter sound blending, we want to make. Sure we're using those same sounds we were doing ah sound earlier. So now we're going to be doing ah sound with words. So the first word, for example, is.so I'm going to not just announce the word dot. We're going to write the word, and the kids are going to give me the sounds and blend it from me. So, so I write down each letter, and I point to the sound the right. And again, you always want to do the first one, where you demonstrate what to do, and then you want them to do it themselves, right? But.so we're going to blend it together. Again, very similar to the phonological awareness, the phonemic awareness, where we just gave them the sound and then they put it together, but now we're doing the letter sound. So again, you don't do phonological awareness in isolation and you don't do letter sound blending in isolation, either they come together. Okay, alright, so now the next word, lot, lot, right? Again, the goal is more and more, right, to do it with them. So we do it, we demonstrate, show them. Model it for them. We do it with them, right? This is the guided and then eventually you want them to get to the point that they are doing it by themselves. So once you put it down, so you would maybe have your voice quiet, and they would be saying, right, right. And there's different levels to the letter sound blending. And again, there's more videos that will come up. And you, of course, you could review the past episodes to see like the different levels of letter sound blending. So now we have a letter sound blending. We have blended these words then again. You want to make sure that you are reading all the words again, so we may need to blend it again, but maybe they remember. Dot lot, right. Don't be surprised if you have to blend it again and again, one of the clues that I was saying earlier is that you may need to stretch that vowel and hold on to it. If you hold on to that vowel sound, it'll help them to hear it and be able to blend it. So that is a challenge for some of the kids, they're not able to hold on to that blend and or they don't know to hold on to that, that that sound, and then add the sound at the end. And so they're like, they still don't know the word, right? So the dot, dot, and they'll be able to hear it. So that is a really good strategy for being able to hear the words. So now that we have it, remember our next thing that we want to think about is being able to read like a sentence with the word. And again, one of the things that you would learn is there are some high frequency words, or sight words. For example, the word the it is not really easily to sound out, especially if they're reading words like this. That's the level they're on, but they need to memorize it, uh, the the.so they may know that from here. And then is, is and is is very tricky, because it makes the sound is you don't say is, is you say is, so, you know, and then red, the red. So, again, this is a consonant, vowel, consonant, word. These are sets of consonant, vowel, consonants. So is this? The rule is short vowels, and they should be able to the and if they're not ready, again, blending through the mouth. Dot red. Okay, alright, so these are the parts that we need to remember about our structured literacy. The last part of the structured literacy approach is so I usually do this part on a whiteboard. I erase the whiteboard, or do totally different words, right? And then we actually have the kids writing down the words. So I will come and sit down again for this. You go back to having kids. Is with the letters, you know, with paper or whiteboards in front of them. And then you say to them, okay, you're now going to write down the word dot. And of course, you're not holding the word up here for them, right, like it's up there for you, but you're going to erase it, or cover it up, or whatever. And then you help them, just like you did with phonemic awareness, you have them look at your mouth as you're articulating the sounds, and you're like, dot, what's the first sound in dot? Next sound in dot, and what letter spells the ah, I mean, D, right? And then ah is the next sound, and what letter spells that, and it's, ah, you know, ah. The next sound, what? Letter o, and then. And so they were do it. And so again, like this, you're going to go ahead and see how you're going to write it. So they would say you. And again, you could show them the first time, D, when they sound you hear in the word dot, we'll move this out the way. And they say, What letter is that? What's letter spells? I was like, oh. And then dot, what letter is that? And they're like, T All right. So again, all of these skills we used up here, listening for the sounds and words, reviewing our letter sounds, doing our letter sound blending, and then, you know, reading also these words, right? And then also actually doing what we call encoding. So let me go ahead and do two more, and then we're going to go back and label these different parts. Okay, so the next word is, and again, I like putting in nonsense words because they don't know all of the words, and they have a limited vocabulary when they're young readers. And so I might say something like the next word is Mont now Mott doesn't have a meaning, but we could still know the rules for sounding it out. What is the first sound you hear? What letter spells? M, the next sound is, ah, what letters you know spells? Oh, the next word in sound and mot. What letter spells it t, right, so again, you go through this with them, and the next word is taught. The Little tut ran around the playground. First down is what letter T, what letter o, and then taught, we say the word, and you're hearing the kids say the word, make sure they say it, and then they can hear the sounds, right? And so we have dot mot taught, and then you go and check their work. Now this is what I want to say about this. Do not, do not edit their work while they're doing it. Like, don't stop them. If they're doing a total wrong thing, don't stop them say, Okay, let's go, and then after they're done. So for example, if they were wrote like, not, right, even though you said Mott, you can go back and say, let's go check our work, and you write the word, okay. We should have.we should have mot and we should have taught so they know that they made a mistake. They can use a different color or write it next to it, or erase, depending on what you want to do, and they're going to make the correction. Okay, I need to do not instead. And then I always go to the articulation, because a lot of the problems with the words and the spelling has to do with articulation. They might have said not. They may have thought you said not. So you are always pointing at your mouth if you're saying in or if you're saying right? You were saying, which letter is that you know you're you know, curving in your mouth, your lips, so they know the difference, and that helps you to understand what they don't hear. Well, that will help you. So again, do not say, up, you got that wrong. Let them write it and say, Okay, you got this one right? You got the O and the T right, but we're missing that first one. So let's go ahead and fix it and remind them that mistakes are part of the learning process. I'm going to say all the time. I'm going to remind them you don't want them feeling bad. This is why kids don't like to read or write when they're making a bunch of mistakes, and we are making them feel bad about their mistakes, or we're nitpicking. Again, I'm you're going to make a conscious effort to say the positives that they're doing. You did a real good job with this one. You. You made Oh, you you got the O and the T, right? So I'm pointing out what they got, right? You got taught, right? Okay, this one, let's go back to that sound. So I said mot, but you had what letter does in make it what sound is N spell again, so you remind them, but again, focus in first on what they did well, and then go back and see about what they did that they need to correct, because if they feel like it's only all bad, then why do I want to do this? I keep making mistakes. I am not good at this. I'm not going to get good at this right? And some of our kids are struggling readers, and they're older, and maybe they should be done with these baby words, as some people may say, but they're not so wherever they are, you want to meet them there, and you want to help build them up. Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and review what we were talking about, because these are very important things you need to know. So this is part of structured literacy, and I'm going to write it here, and it's just four steps. There's like eight different steps in structured literacy. So you should know that about eight different steps, and we will do videos, and I even have a course, and I can give you a consultation as well to help you recognize an area of your child's reading that can be improved. And all of that because reading is so fundamental, right? Our kids need to know how to do it, and if they're not naturally picking up reading, then it's very hard. Reading can be like rocket science, right? There's a lot of research on the science and reading about how difficult it can be, and it takes a lot of training to kind of diagnose those issues and to remedy those issues. So we have the phonological awareness. This is just sounds, manipulating the sounds and words. Then we have reviewing the letter sound. So we're literally holding up the cards and asking you what letter spells this. Writing down a letter that makes them sound like fish, right? Things like that, reviewing the letter sounds right. Number three, we're doing our letter sound blending, letter sound blending. So an example would be dot lot, right? And again, how to make this structure is making sure that we're not just doing any letters and sounds. But I focused in on the short o sound, right? When you have a struggling reader or a new reader, it is important that you stay focused on particular sounds. Now you can spend a week on all a week on it right, and then eventually you could do any short sound, but again, you're still working on the CVC words. These are consonant, vowel consonants, and they all have the same sound. Remember, during the phonological awareness, I stuck with the ah sound as I was doing it, and that's throughout they're going to get it, because you are connecting the sounds to the letters, and then actually doing the letter sound blending is also known as decoding. And then when we did the number four, this is called encoding, and it's also called dictation. So people use new terms for the same thing. So just be aware, some people will call it encoding. Some people call it dictation, and I think some people even have another terminology for it, but these are four really important parts. Of course, decoding or letter sound blending is interchangeable. So very important. Hopefully you have found your value. If so, please, like, subscribe, do all of those things and message me if you want you know some more in depth information. Are there particular types of videos that you want me to share? I'm here for it, and we know we can work together to get children's reading on track. Okay? Now, thank you again for joining me. Make sure today that you do something that your future adult children will thank you for thanks again. Thanks again for supporting the Falling for Learning Podcast, new episodes go live every Saturday at 5pm you can watch us on youtube.com, at falling for learning, or listen on all major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google, Audible, Spotify and much more for more resources, visit fallinginlovewithlearning.com or. We really appreciate you. Have a wonderful week.