PES Professional Development for Reading

Setting up Instructional Reading:

• Have to build basic literacy skills. Be aware of where we are actually heading.
• Build capability and foundations well in our children earlier.
• Activate the child’s PK, orientation and introducing the theme - hooking them in
• Vocab is important because if we haven’t preloaded the children with multiple opportunities to discuss and share their ideas, it isn’t effective.
• Squires Video: looking at the cover of the text and giving children information. What do you see? What new information can you give them to help them better understand? Keeping the idea about the book tight so that they know what they will be reading about. Give them the information they will need so that they don’t get stuck on unfamiliar words because you’ve already given that information.
• Nua Video: When hands were up, she told them to put them down so that she could “set norms”. Know your child’s prior experiences. This makes it helpful to stick to the theme. Let the children know what they are doing and why. This helps you to see what kind of readers they are. 
• Rebecca Video: asked them what they already know about recycling and climate change. What does recycling have to do with climate change? Wrote down what they knew so that she could draw straight into the theme of the text rather than go off on a tangent. Gave them time to share their ideas, as well as discuss an idea in pairs. Stop allowing one-two word answers, demand a sentence so that they can explain themselves.

Independent Reading: 

• I do something similar to round robin, except I do reading roulette. To make sure that each child has a turn at reading and I can see them reading different parts. That way they are reading along and everyone is taking their turn. Children read along with the others but I let them know not to 
• To stop them from parroting, you can ask them to go back and read a certain part so that the child they are parroting with can read on and read in different places.
• It is alright that you have missed some mistakes when you are doing independent reading because we are helping them learn strategies to help them read.
• Seniors: got them to whisper, got them to read in their heads and then when she wanted to hear them read out loud, she would make a gesture in front of them so that they could read out loud.

Gwynneth Prompts:

• When talking about fluency, get them to keep going over it until they are reading how they talk. You could even use a card to push the words along (this usually forces them to keep up with the speed of how they usually talk). Tell them how they sound so that they see why they don’t sound right.
• When the learner gets the word wrong, instead of using “no that doesn’t say that”, use the word “right” in your question.
• If there is a word that they don’t know, make them read back so that they can guess the word (context). “Read that again… go back…” etc.
• If there are words that are unfamiliar, make sure there is a discussion beforehand about the vocabulary in the text.
• It has to be their brain that does the checking so that they will be able to fix “does this look right?”
• Suffixes and prefixes - can use blends or single letters. Helpful for all reading ages.
• Creating various imprints in your mind so that when you see or hear that word, you see that. Visual triggers.
• Long unfamiliar words. Use these prompts for those who are stuck on them and they usually make up words that they know start with the letter. Can I see a part in this word that I know? Can I see a sound in this word that I know?
• Automaticity

Instructional Reading - Lesson Components/Strategies

• When sharing a book with your learners, make sure that you have some knowledge about what is being read about so that you aren’t playing catch up, and so that you know what you are talking about.
• Plan for interest. Give both purpose and interest reasons when planning. That way children are engaged with the lesson.
• Going back to the last lesson that you read with your children so that they can remember their learning from then.
• Create lessons based on what you see from the last session so that you can teach more strategies.
• For those not there in the last lesson, you are clueing them in to what happened and giving them an insight into what you expect your learners to do and how to interact.
• All about discussion and interpretation, not so much the reading. But make sure to acknowledge this.
• Listen AND reply. Usually during discussion, someone talks and the others listen. You need to encourage the others to listen AND reply or respond to what they heard.
• Importance of being well-prepared with planning, resources and discussion. It makes the lesson flow, and it piques learners interest and interaction.
• When you are switching pages tell the children what they will be learning about so they can look for what you are talking about.
• It’s not about reading the text, it’s about engaging with the context of the text.
• Read the page and then get them to come back and discuss their thinking.
• Know queueing times, give learners time to think and allow those who have their answer to share, and then come back to those who need the time to share their ideas.