“Why do I have to write two T’s in the word butter when I only hear one sound?
And how do I know whether to make the long or short sound for the letter u?”
As teachers, we know that the trick to figuring this out is based on the syllabic division of a word.
VCV (vowel—consonant—vowel) = “open” syllable = long sound (as in bite)
VCCV (vowel—consonant—consonant—vowel) = “closed” syllable = short sound (as in bitter)
But for early and struggling, upper grade learners, this “trick” can actually be more confusing than the problem it solves, thus making an already difficult task seem even more complicated, especially for the average “concrete-thinker” (which early learners are).
If you’ve been following my blog (or are using the SECRET STORIES®) then you know how quickly and easily the Mommy E® and Babysitter Vowels® secrets are an easy-fix for this pervasive problem. This is because kids already know that when their Mommy (or Babysitter) is nearby, they have to behave and do what they’re told! And when they are not, all behavior-bets are off!
Simplified alternatives, like Sparkly E or Magic E are less effective for a couple of reasons:
—Listening to mommy or a babysitter is already rooted in what kids already know and understand , as they are part of their social emotional framework of understanding. However, Sparkly E and Magic E are random and arbitrary, and therefore require an additional step in the learning process before they can be applied.
—Sparkly E and Magic E only apply to one syllable words ending in silent e (bike, rake, use, etc…) and does not help kids to decode all VCV/ VCCV words, like: going, making, rider, motor, etc… They don’t provide much bang for the instructional-buck, as they only work when there is an e at the end, and otherwise leaving learners “high and dry!”
Kids who know the Secrets can easily crack even more advanced, multi-syllabic words, like hibernate! All they need to know is that much like their own mommy, sometimes Mommy E® just has to get out of the house! When she does, she’ll put another vowel in charge to babysit, and he does exactly what Mommy would do if she were there, which is tell any vowel that’s one letter away, “You say your name!” Works like a charm every time!
So let’s see just how easy this is, even for kindergartners!
Knowing the Mommy E® and Babysitter Vowels® Secrets instantly equip even the youngest four or five year old learners with the “best-betting odds for Las Vegas” when it comes to the most likely sound a vowel will make—even in words they’ve never seen before!
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.
https://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/8-2Bmommy-2Be-2Bfrom-2Bnew-2Bsecret-2Bstories-2Bbook.jpg1024778Katie Garnerhttps://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Secret-Stories-Phonics-Method-Logo-1-copy.pngKatie Garner2017-01-02 18:58:002018-10-01 17:07:04“Butter or Buter?” The Best Vowel-Trick EVER!
I have been a Reading Specialist for thirty years, as well as an adjunct university professor. I have enjoyed great success with the Secret Stories, and my kindergarten through fifth grade students have had such an easy time mastering them and their reading levels have soared! Have you ever thought about adding more Secrets? For example, what about for these patterns, below?
Laura also sent a little note from Ella, who’d asked me to write more stories, and also to let me know that her favorite Secret Story was the one about /th/…..which is just too cute!
“We had fun learning the Secret Stories. Can you write (more) stories? My favorite is TH!” From Ella
I LOVE questions like these, so thank you to Laura and Ella for reaching out to ask them! Questions like this provide the perfect opportunity for me to open up a big can of worms when it comes to the way we traditionally think about phonics and reading instruction, in general.
Secret Stories® is not like traditional phonics, nor is it like any phonics or reading program. There are no “grade level walls” that delay access to the code kids need to read and write The Secrets simply put meaning where there would otherwise be none, so as to shift instruction from brain-antagonistic to brain-compatible.
How to Predict the Most Likely Sounds of Letters in Unknown Words
Take -le, for example, as in words like little or middle. There is no Secret for the –le sound because it’s not necessary in to read the words— not if learners know that the /e/ at the end won’t talk anyway. (Mommy E® is supposed to tell any vowel that’s one letter away, “YOU SAY YOUR NAME!” However, I like to tell kids that “Sometimes mommy’s there, but she’s just too tired to care!” ex. have, because, riddle, etc…)
Likewise, if a phonics pattern is so rare that it would be of minimal use to elementary grade level readers, then it is not addressed with a Secret. In such cases, experience is the best teacher, so the key is to get enough real skills under learners’ belts so that they can get up and running with text, and allow text experience to fine-tune learners’ skills. An example of this would be the silent t in words containing the -st or -stle pattern, as in whistle or listen. This sound spelling applies to so few words that it doesn’t merit the time and space it would take up in beginning or struggling readers’ brains. Moreover, learners how know just enough Secrets to read the rest of such words would likely be able to make the adjustment to figure out the word.
The key to being able to successfully give beginning grade learners everything they need is not to burden them with anything they don’t need. (Sorry for the double negative, but hopefully you get the drift!) In simpler terms, don’t get caught up in the minutia! The ultimate goal is GET KIDS READING by not taking 3-4 grade level years to deliver the “whole” code they need to do it!
By using brain-based connections to make phonics make sense, we can accelerate learner-access to the “whole” code that’s needed to read and write—rather than divvying it out in grade-level “bits and pieces!” This allows beginning grade learners to start gaining valuable text experience years earlier than they otherwise could. And READING is a far better teacher than we will ever be!
In addition to providing logical explanations for letter sound behavior that the brain craves, Secret Stories®also accounts for their “next-most likely” default sounds — all of which are embedded into the sound posters. Because these defaults follow the same social emotional “feeling” based logic that drives learners’ own behavior, even inexperienced, beginning readers (and upper grade struggling readers) are easily able “think-through” the alternative sound behaviors of letters in unknown words instead of just having to memorize them (as exceptions).
Filtering-out the fringe and streamlining the most common letter sound behaviors offers kids a new way of thinking about phonics. Instead of the binary “rule/exception” approach to phonics, Secret Stories® aligns letter behavior with kid behavior, making sounds easily predictable. It is within this “hierarchy of likelihood” that young and inexperienced readers are easily able to logically deduce the most and next-most likely sounds of letters, even in words they have never seen before.
Finally, there is one more point I need to make before I specifically address why there are no Secrets for the words above. Just as apples won’t fall far from the tree, letters won’t stray far from their sounds! This handy saying can be used to help both students and teachers, alike to convey the flexible thinking that’s needed to effectively work-through the most and next-most likely sound options.
Working with text requires learners to “think outside the box,” which they cannot do if they don’t know first know what’s IN it. The Secrets equip learners everything that’s IN the box so they can more easily think outside it. Rather than having to memorize words that are exceptions in order to read them, students can use higher-level thinking and problem solving to figure them out, stretching their analytical thinking and problem solving capabilities far beyond just phonics skills for reading.
Activating Social-Emotional Learning Channels for Higher Level Thinking
When learners are equipped with Secrets, they actually enjoy engaging with text in this way, as daily reading and writing is transformed into a virtual playground for critical thinking and deep literacy learning!
By anchoring abstract letter sound and phonics skills into social and emotional frameworks that are already deeply entrenched within the learner, they become personally meaningful and relevant.
Now Let’s Play “Word Doctor” with the Words Above!
Let’s start with the simplest one, which is ck. Both letters are simply making their correct sounds, and because their sounds are identical, this spelling pattern is easy to sound out. Thus, no Secret is needed!
Next up is -dge (as in ridge, sludge, budget, etc…)
If kids know the ce, ci, cy/ ge, gi, gy Secretthen the addition of the letter d should pose no problem when sounding out the word. Even if they include the d sound, they would still be able to “get” (recognize) the word. Additionally, the e at the end would also cause no worry, as kids who know the Secrets know that Mommy E® can only tell the vowel to say its name if she’s one letter away, close enough to reach it!
Therefore, creating a new Secret for the –dgepattern is unnecessary andwould only result in our having “one too many” cooks in our kitchen! That’s not to say that knowledge of -dgeas a spelling pattern wouldn’t be useful to upper grade learners, abut the primary goal is to get kids reading. All of the research shows that reading is by far the best teacher for fine-tuning spelling, and kids who know the Secrets will be able to that experience, tenfold!
Next up—
-tch (as in: scratch, itch, crutch, etc…)
Same as above.
If learners know the ch Secret, then initially attacking it with the t sound before the ch won’t interfere with a reader’s ability to ultimately decode the word, even for kindergartners.
Knowing the qu Secret is all that is needed here, along with recognizing that as with -dge, the e at the end makes no sound. And keep in mind that when working with words not of English origin, Secret Stories® will get you close, but not all the way, as the same rules don’t apply, as with words like: bouquet, applique, etc…
-ive(as in: dive, give, active, lives, etc…)
The first word, dive poses no problem at all, as Mommy E® is doing just what she should, which is in telling i (who’s one letter away)to say his name! However, in the other words— give, active and live — Mommy E® is just “too tired to care,” as sometimes mommies are! Which is why sometimes, she’ll just sit back and let the vowels do whatever they want… because even moms aren’t perfect! It’s words like these that require kids to put on their “Dr. Hat” and think-through to the next most likely sound!
-old (as in: bold, cold, mold, etc…)
This one’s easy, with the only possible glitch being that the letter ois making its long (Superhero) sound instead of the short and lazy one it’s supposed to when Mommy E® or the Babysitter Vowels®´aren’t around. Even still, simply encouraging learners to “think like doctors” and trying the next most likely sound for o will enable them to get the word.
Learn the “Secrets” about Mommy E® and Babysitter Vowels® in the video below.
-olt(as in: bolt, molten, revolt, etc..)
Same as above.
-ank(as in: bank, sank, ankle, etc…) Same as above.
Superhero O and his “short and lazy” disguise!
-ost (as in: cost, post, lost, most, etc…) Same as above, as o should short and lazy, since there is no Mommy E® or Babysitter Vowel® in sight, so again, learners need to “think like doctors” and try both sounds to be sure, just like any good word doctor would do. -ind (as in: kind, windy, find, Indian, etc…) Same as above. -ild (as in: mild, wild, child, build, mildew, etc…) Same as above.
-on (as in: Monday, money, done, etc..)
In all these words, the short o sounds more like short u, or schwa sound. The letter o makes this sound in many words, like: come, of, love, some, done, etc. Other vowels will often “default” to the schwa sound as well in words like: what, was, was, want, above, about, pencil, etc. When vowels make this sound, it’s because they are thinking, which is why they’re called the Thinking Vowels™, and their sound is easily prompted with a simple “head-bop.” With this simple secret trick, even kindergartners can easily decode otherwise “undecodable” words! You can read about the Thinking Vowels™ here.
While we have a trick for the words above, every now and then, kids will need to use a little more elbow grease to “bend” the letter sounds and “get” the word. Practicing is very helpful and can actually be a lot of fun, and a great way to do it is to read the books Hungry Thing and Hungry Thing Returns by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler “What else could it be? What else can I try?”
-unk (as in: bunk, chunk, dunk, etc…)
No secrets needed, as the letters are doing exactly what they should! -ink (as in: sink, blink, drink, etc…)
One of my favorite Secrets is I tries E on for Size,and it’s all that’s needed to explain why i will sometimes make e’s sound instead of his own!
Secret Stories® “I tries E on for Size”
-ture (as in: future, mature, lecture, etc…)
This one’s easily taken care of with the ER, IR & UR- Secret, as thet just makes its regular sound, and like some of the other patterns above, Mommy E® is just hanging out at the end, doing nothing!
Not only can beginning kindergartners LEARN it, they can TEACH it!
Reading Hard Words Can Be Easy, If You Know the “Secrets”
As mentioned earlier in this post, this pattern occurs too infrequently to mandate having another cook in our kitchen. And even though Mommy E® is at the end, she isn’t interfering with how the word is sounded out, as she’s too far away to reach the vowel and make it say its name, anyway. And as for the silent t, even if learners did include it when sounding out the word, they should still be able to “get” (recognize) the word. It really doesn’t take much deductive reasoning (even for kinders!) to sound out a word like castle (withthe t-sound) and be able to figure out that the word is actually castle (without the t sound)
Fostering this fluid and flexible thinking about letters and the sounds they make is what helps to transform daily reading and writing into a playground of critical thinking and deep learning opportunities! And while the kids enjoy seeing the Secrets work, they have much MORE fun playing word doctor when they don’t— trying to figure out what else the letters might are doing and how best to tackle them! And as the more they engage, the more powerful they feel when working with text, and the more their confidence grows across the instructional day! they over text grows by the day,
This is easy to see when watching these first graders at work, trying to account for why the i is long in words like light, right and fight, when there is no Mommy E® or Babysitter Vowel® there to make it say its name! (This clip of Mrs. Mac’s class is one of my favorites!)
Former early grade teacher turned Harvard University Neuroscientist, Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang sums up what is evident in the short video clip above, which is that, “It is neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things you don’t care about.” These kids really care! Not about long and short vowels, but about mommies, babysitters, vacations, the behavior of other kids, etc… all of which are woven into the Secret that they are passionately debating in the word light.
Now for the final part of Laura’s question regarding what books are best to use with Secret Stories®. That one’s easy— anything and everything! Books, magazines, posters, road signs, cafeteria menus, logos, etc…. literally everything with text is fair game!
The daily course of your instruction will dictate much of what kids are reading and writing each day, as Secrets are introduced in context of daily instruction across the course of the entire instructional day— whenever and wherever they are needed! From hallway signs to cafeteria menus to math books, Secrets are everywhere, just waiting to be discovered!
Secrets are easily introduced and reinforced with any text, and are especially helpful during guided reading. I have created a limited set of Secret Stories® Guided Readers to help teachers when working with guided groups and helping learners use the Secrets to decode text. These are especially helpful as they include an additional version with the Secrets in the text to help build learners’ visual acuity for easier pattern recognition, as well as teacher notes for added insights (similar to those made in this post) to help guide teachers through the process of helping learners when decoding trickier words. It’s as if I were sitting right beside you and your students at the guided reading table! :-)
Access the Complete Set in the Guided Reader Description
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.
https://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/IMG_0318.jpg998979Katie Garnerhttps://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Secret-Stories-Phonics-Method-Logo-1-copy.pngKatie Garner2016-02-20 19:42:002022-09-21 16:32:12How to Avoid Having “Too Many Cooks in the Phonics Kitchen!”
“Last year, a lot of parents in my class were asking about the Secret Stories®and how they could use them at home to support what their child was learning in school. I want to respect the copyright, but I also love that parents want to know!
Do you have suggestions on how to share the stories with parents? I noticed you’d suggested in another post that teachers could make a big book to send home using their older posters, but I don’t have the old posters. I only have the smaller, cut-apart set that I use in small group to work with my kids?”
As soon as I received this question, I wanted to answer it here!
So here are some Do’s ANDDon’ts for sharing the Secrets with your parents!
—DOdevote some time during Open House to let parents know about the Secrets (i.e. what they are, how kids use them to read/spell words, etc..) and be sure to send home a copy of the “Parent-Share” page (found in the white section of your Secret Stories® book). As time at Open House is short, the “Parent-Share” page is key, as it allows them to “dig deeper” later by accessing the Secret Stories® website, YouTube Channel and even get information on the Parent/Home Version for acceleration or remediation at home.
At our school, Open House was usually a couple of weeks into the school year, so news of the Secrets had already started to make its way home to many of the parents in my classroom.Some parents, however had no idea that the “secrets” their kids kept talking about were actually about the sounds of the letters! That’s why it’s important to let parents in on the Secrets as early in the year as possible. That way, parents know how to support reading and writing efforts at home by asking their child, “Do you see any Secrets? (when reading) and “Do you hear any Secret sounds?” (when writing). Parents don’t have to “know” all of the Secrets in order to remind their child to look and listen for them in words.
—DO include the kids in sharing the Secrets! Whether at Open House or sometime in the first few weeks of school (or both!) you can let the kids “act-out” some Secret Stories® for their parents! It’s a great way to reinforce them with students while introducing them to parents, plus there’s NO learning curve! With the Secrets, everyone (students and parents, both!) just “get” them!
Below is a teacher dramatization of a Secret (you can find more on the Secret Stories® Youtube Channel here!)
—DO tell parents about new Secrets that were shared in the newsletter!
Open-ended questions are best, allowing kids to take full-ownership of the story, so anything along the lines of those below will do: —”Ask Johnny to tell you the Secret we learned about au/aw!” —”See if Johnny can tell you some words that have the au/aw Secret!” —”Over the weekend, see how many words with the au/aw Secret Johnny can spot!”
Kids will take great pride in the Secrets that they know, as each new Secret represents their ever-growing power over text! It’s a mistake to assume that without including the actual story, kids won’t be able to tell parents the Secret. The more responsibility students are given, have, the nore they will show, plus the Secrets are stored in the same social-emotional “feeling” based centers that keep track of “who got in trouble” and “who got to be the line leader,” so they’re not likely to forget them!
Now that’s not to say that there won’t be times when a little clarification might be needed. Like the time one of my kinders went home and told his mother… “Mrs. Garner told us about this guy who’s married, but he has a girlfriend too, and he loves them both so much that he says “ahhhhhhhhh” with both of them! She talks about them every day and even has their picture up on the wall….”
He was talking about au/aw, but it took his mom (who came in first thing the following morning!) and I a good while to actually figure that out! And even though the Secret didn’t quite make it home completely intact, that same little guy could still put to immediate use to crack words like: August, awful, awesome or awful!
—DOconsider purchasing the Secret Stories® Porta-Pics ($2.50 per student, sold in sets of 25) for your class to use in the classroom and at home. They are cheaper than a Scholastic Book Order and can be used with multi-grade level siblings at home.
Providing the Porta-Pics for home use is also a great way to satisfy a common component of many School Improvement Plans, which is to foster connections between home and school learning and parent involvement. Many schools will offer a “Secret” Parent Night where they are given free to those parents who attend!
A “Secret” Parent Night with Parent Resource hosted by PTA to familiarize parents with the Secrets!
—DO send home the reproducible Secret sheets (in the back of the Secret Stories® book) as they are mastered in guided group, and alert parents to look for them to come home regularly. Kids not only love earning a Secret “star” with each sheet mastered and moving on to the next Secret group, but sending them home is also a great way to keep parents informed and create a perfect summer review packet of all the Secrets!
Like the Secret sheets (which kids work-through in guided reading alongside actual text), the Secret Stories® Guided Readersprovide another great way for parents to support and practice Secrets at home, as does Spotting Secrets, which includes thumbnail-sized graphics for many of the more common digraph-Secrets (th, ch, wh, sh, ph, gh, etc….).
-DOconsider using your “old” Secret Stories® posters (for those who have them) to create “take-home” Secret Stories® big book that students can take home on a rotating basis. I explained more about this in a previous post that you can read here. This is a great idea for all those who have purchased the newly updated and expanded Secret Stories® edition, Version 2.0 with the new Fun & Funky,OriginalorSpace Saverposters.
—DON’Tcopy the Secret Stories® graphics (posters, book or “cut-apart” cards) or any of the copy written text. Not only is it infringing on the copyrights and trademarks, but at just $2.50 a student, the Porta-Picsare a much cheaper way to send all of the Secrets home with kids than paying to make illegal color copies….plus they won’t land you in hot water with your school or district!
I had to mention this one because oftentimes, as teachers, we are provided with adopted, reading series material that we ARE allowed to copy and distribute to our students, as per the licensing agreement when purchased. With Secret Stories® however, this is not the case, which is why the Porta-Picswere created— to provide teachers with an easy and inexpensive way to send the Secrets home to parents.
—DON’Tmake copies of the Porta-Pics either— Lol! ;-)
—DON’TRE-produce, RE-type, RE-write, or RE-word the story text or graphics in handouts, class newsletters, class websites, Weeblys, Google docs, Prezis, Promethean/Smart Board documents, etc…
You wouldn’t believe some of the unusual “Secret” things that I’ve have found (and that folks kind folks have discovered and sent to me) online! By far, the absolute strangest was the way that someone had attempted to “share” the Secret Storie® was by uploading to Google Docs a 200+ page PDF file of the Secret Stories® book, held in her hand, one page at a time… from cover to cover! (The funniest part was that she was holding it up, as if she were reading it to the class, which meant that her fingers were prominently featured in every shot!) I cannot even imagine how long the entire process of photographing every single pari of pages— from cover to cover— must have taken her…. or howshe was able to find someone to actually take all of those pictures!!! In her defense though, the Porta-Pics hadn’t been available at that time! ;-)
PS Just in case you hadn’t found them yet, you can download FREE PreK-3rd Common Core Literacy Posters w/Secret Stories® graphic-supports here, as well as FREE made-to-match Common Core Science Posters (see individual grade level links, below.)
There, you will find links for other other ‘made-to-match’ sets, including the FREE Common Core Science Posters, also for grades PreK-3rd!
I love watching the kids use our Secret posters on the wall to read and write whatever they want. It’s amazing what our youngest learners can do and how easily they can do it when we just give them the tools they need and let them ‘play!’
Which Posters/ Kit Should I Get?
FOR USE IN PRIMARY CLASSROOMS (K-2)
If you teach at the primary grade levels, it’s important that students have easy visual access to the posters from anywhere and everywhere they read and write in the classroom. This means that they need to be large enough for them to easily see, as they will be their lifeline for reading and writing ALL. DAY. LONG. That’s why I don’t recommend the Space-Saver Kit for use at the early grade levels. They are just too small for whole-class reference, and if kids can’t see them, they won’t use them. For primary grades, the Original, Fun & Funky and Decorative Squares Kits all work perfectly….as do the Porta-Pics for individual student reference in school and at home (if kids don’t eat them!)
INTERMEDIATE GRADE & RESOURCE CLASSROOMS:
While the Space Saver Posters are too small to provide easy visual access for reading and writing in the primary classroom, they are ideal small group reference in upper/intermediate classrooms, as well as smaller resource rooms.
Porta-Pics are also ideal for use at these grade levels, and especially with students who move between the regular and resource classroom (SpEd, ESL, Speech, etc…) as well as for home use. (Note: If the majority of your students struggle with reading and writing, you should always default to the larger size posters, regardless of grade level.)
So now that you have you’ve got your posters, it’s time to laminate them and get them up on the wall!
But which wall, and in what order? What is the best way to display my Secret Stories® posters?
The most frequently asked question I hear with regard to the posters, especially when visiting schools for “back-to-school” in-service when teachers are setting up their classrooms, is “What’s the best way to hang the posters?”
The short answer is that there really isn’t a “best” way to hang them, but there are some tips and tricks to ensure that students get the most out of them.
Do I really need to hang ALL of the posters on Day 1?
This is critical and I can’t say it loud enough….Put up EVERY SINGLE POSTER on Day 1! Never wait until you introduce a Secret to hang it on the wall. Waiting to hang them until you teach them slows everything down, as you “can’t control the code” and shouldn’t try to. It will only slow things down and prevent students from driving their own learning.
Imagine going to a buffet and being told that dishes would be served one at a time, when they were ready. This would defeat the entire purpose of going to a buffet, where is you can have instant access to EVERYTHING….and with no designated waiting time! Otherwise, you might as well just go to a restaurant where you’re at the mercy of the waiter or waitress, who gets to decide “what” you can have and “when” you can have it. (Not to mention, the things you might not even know you want/need until you see them—like the cake you didn’t know you wanted until you saw it!)
3 Reasons Why You Need ALL of the Posters Up!
You don’t know what you need until you need it! You never know what’s looming around the corner of your instructional day, as opportunities for sharing Secrets are everywhere, and you don’t want to miss them! Unlike phonics rules that you have to “teach,” Secrets are just stories that you share. And stories are harmless, with no expectations, so you don’t have to worry about whether kids are “ready” to hear them. Share them like keys to help kids unlock the words they’re already reading and writing across the day! And because the Secrets are embedded into social and emotional story-frameworks that kids already understand, they love hearing them and talking about them…. even before they begin using them to read and write. Whereas traditional phonics skill introduction takes 3-4 grade level years, you can share a Secret in an instant, years before it’s formal introduction on a grade level scope and sequence.
Empowering students to “drive” their own learning! Learner-driven instruction is a key tenet of brain based learning. When we WANT to know something, that information is marked for memory and prioritized learning in the brain. All you have to do to start the ball rolling is set the stage by letting kids know that anytime they can’t read or spell a word, it’s probably because there’s a “grown-up” reading secret in it that they don’t know! This not only helps them to understand and account for letters not making the sounds they’d expect, but also triggers a need to know the Secret! And most importantly, with all of the posters up, kids are able to verify that there IS a secret in the word they can’t read, as they can see the letters in the word are the same as the ones on the poster…and then ask you for it! Literally every time they see a letter not making the sound that it should, they know that’s one more Secret that you haven’t told them yet, and they demand to know what it is!
Increasing visual acuity for easy pattern recognition in text!
Having all of the posters up requires students to visually scan all of the Secrets they don’t know in order to find the ones that they do every time they read and write. This continual scanning process serves to increase learners’ visual acuity so as to more easily recognize all of the patterns in text—even the ones they don’t know yet. That means that long before you actually share the Secret, the phonics pattern is incubating….like a classmate whose face you recognize, even though you don’t yet know his name!
Is there a special way to group the posters on the wall?
I recommend hanging all of the posters together on one wall (which will be your sound wall, or your “Wall of Secrets!”) That is, with the exception of the Superhero Vowel®, Sneaky Y® and QU posters, which should be hung above or in place of their “like-letters” in your existing classroom alphabet.
The purpose of this is to draw learners’ attention to their alternative sounds, as unlike most Secrets, which explain what letters do when they get together, these letters have their own individual Secrets! This allows for easier sound reference when singing The Better Alphabet Song, which is what’s used to fast-track individual letters sound mastery using muscle memory in just two weeks to two months. (Note: For the letter /Q/, I suggest using a permanent marker to write in the letter /u/ after the /q/ and referring to it as /qu/, as /q/ never goes anywhere without /u/, and together they make ONE sound- “kwa.” Even though the /qu/ poster will be hanging just above, it still helps to visually cement the two letters together into one for reading and spelling.)
The answer is yes, IF you they are “elephant-free” (Be sure to watch the video below to see what this means!)
Check over your existing alphabet anchors to make sure that the picture cues used for each letter accurately depict its most likely sound/sounds, as most do not. You might be surprised to discover lots “elephants” in your alphabet. If the letter /o/ in your alphabet has a picture of an orange or an oyster, that’s bad, as the letter /o/ (by itself) can only make two sounds— long (as in oak) and short (as in octopus). Equally concerning is if only ONE sound depiction for the vowels is shown, as kids need both to read and write!
Similarly, kids need to know both the hard and soft sounds of the letters /c/ and /g/ (as in cat/circus and goat/giraffe). Another letter to check is /x/, as often this letter is depicted with a xylophoneor an x-ray—neither of which are sounds that /x/ is most likely to make. It’s most likely sound is “ks,” like in the words box and ox.
For obvious reasons, instructional focus should always be on the most likely sound/sounds that letters make, not the least likely. All too often, a publisher (or TpT creator’s) priority is “pretty pictures” rather than accurate sound depictions.
Is there a Secret Stories® Alphabet?
Yes! I actually created the Secret Stories® Better Alphabet™ Anchors and individual student Mini-Mats for all of the reasons listed above. You don’t have to use them if your alphabet is “elephant-free,” as you have the Secret Stories® posters you need to use with your existing one. However, if elephants are everywhere, the Better Alphabet Anchors might just be the better option.
Due to the remote learning needs this year, I created a video version of the original Better Alphabet™ Song (which is song #1 on the CD or music download that came with your Secret Stories® kit). It’s been extremely helpful for online learning and student home practice, as the graphics are identical to the ones on the Better Alphabet™ anchors (and mini-mats) providing for consistent student reference. Like the Better Alphabet Anchors, you don’t need the video to sing the Better Alphabet Song that’s in your kit, but it is helpful, especially in remote learning. Below is a video about the Better Alphabet, as well as the video.
Both the classroom anchors and individual student mini-mats are available in digital format, with the Superhero Vowels®, Sneaky Y® and /qu/ graphics already embedded so you don’t need to use the ones in your kit.
The digital Better Alphabet™ Anchors includes both the “red” and “decorative” versions (to match the Secret Stories® phonics posters) in multiple size options to create a horizontal and vertical alphabet (for easy singing of the lightning-fast Letter Runs!)
Multiple Size Options for Horizontal & Vertical Display
Where’s the best place to hang the posters in my classroom?
I can tell you from personal experience that finding a place where kids can easily see ALL of the posters from everywhere they read and write in the classroom is easier said than done! They will be referencing them constantly— in whole group, small group, circle time, centers, and of course reading and writing at their desks. The posters will be their “lifeline” for reading and writing across the entire instructional day!
If kids can’t see them easily, they will be constantly out of their seats to locate the the Secrets they need to read and spell words….and it will drive you crazy! It’s especially difficult in kindergarten and first grade classrooms, given how much “stuff” we have at the early grade levels, which makes easy visual access virtually impossible….aside from posting on the ceiling, which one teacher actually did!
Don’t be afraid to try different spots if the current one isn’t ideal. My poor assistant moved ours several times before we finally found the perfect spot. (So be sure to bring your assistant a big, frothy Starbucks coffee when making these moves!) Also, keep in mind that if there is no perfect spot in your classroom where all of the kids can see all of the posters, the Porta-Pics are a great alternative, as kids can keep them in their reading/writing folders for individual access and use.
If my posters are all on the wall, what can I use for “hands-on” lessons and activities with the Secrets?
It’s always handy to have an extra set of Secret visuals on hand, not just for lessons, but also for games and activities. The best “hands-on” options are the Dual-Use Placards and Flashcards, as they are sturdy, small and convenient for student use. The small “cut-apart” cards in the back of the Secret Stories® book are also helpful for very small group work and one-on-one practice. You can view all of these below.
I have the “Original” posters, so do I need to cut them down?
Unlike the Fun & Funky and Space-Saver Phonics Posters, which both have a yellow border that separates them visually when hung together on the wall, the Original Posters were designed to be “cut-down” and clustered together, so as to take up less space on the wall, while still being large enough to see from anywhere in the primary classroom.
“Creative-Cutting” Fun!
Without a definitive border, the phonics patterns on the Original posters can appear to run together when posted “as is” close together on the wall, which is why they should be cut and mounted on colored paper. When cutting the posters, you can make them as simple or as creative as you like!
If I upgrade my Kit, what can I do with my old Secret Stories® posters?
If you decide to upgrade your old Secret Stories® Kit, you can always use your old posters to make a “Big Book of Secrets” that students will LOVE! It can be taken home and shared with parents on a rotating basis, or even as a special reward! It’s also an ideal way to connect parents with the learning…and the Secrets!
Take-Home “Big Book” of Secrets
All you need to do is back your old posters on large sheets on construction paper, re-laminate the pages, and “bind” them together using ring hooks. (If you really want to get creative, you can cover the front and back page in foil and glue plastic gems and feathers to make your book look super “secret!”) And Voile! Your very own class “Book of Secrets!” (And on a side note, you can also use your old Secret Stories® book as a parent “check-out” resource that parents can take home to remediate or accelerate, as needed.)
Additional Uses for Old Poster Sets
Some schools and districts intentionally order extra posters sets to display in common areas where kids tend to congregate—in the hallways, the cafeteria line, the media center, the front office wall, etc… This is a great way to spur conversation between students about “who knows what Secrets,” as well as to educate parents on what the Secrets are and how they’re used. It also helps to build learners’ visual acuity for increased pattern-recognition when working with text. (Schools will sometimes also purchase extra copies of the book to house in a parent resource room for parent check-out. These copies are often paid for with School Improvement Funds for Home/Parent Involvement.)
I wish I could see how other teachers display the Secret Stories® posters in their classrooms!
Your wish is granted! Below are more pictures that show all of the creative ways that teachers display the Secret Stories® phonics posters in their classrooms. And for many more ideas, as well free Secret resources and real teacher-talk, join the new Secret Stories® Support Group on Facebook!
And finally, check out these miniature Secret Stories® phonics posters in this adorable “Peep” Classroom, created by Mrs. Mac’s Munchkins!
And to bring this very long “poster-post” to a close, I just had to share an awesome Secret Stories® Superhero door transformation! (You can read more here!
And here are some close-up pics….
And if you aren’t using the Secret Stories® yet, but you’re thinking about trying them, you can download a free poster “appetizer” pack and just watch how fast kids start using them to read and write!
The brain is a pattern-making machine—seeking-out patterns and creating new ones. This is its natural system for learning. And yet, when it comes to teaching abstract letter sound and phonics skills for reading, it can be difficult (if not impossible) to feed the brain the logical explanations for letter sound behavior that it craves!
The Best Thinkers are the Best “Pattern-Makers”
Watch as these first graders are transformed into analytical “word doctors” upon coming across the /ie/ phonics Secret during guided reading. Watch as they think-through (i.e. pattern-out) all of the Secrets they know about Superhero I in order to account for his (sound) behavior, and while doing so, also create a brand NEW pattern! Their diagnosis? Apparently, Superhero I has some sort of obsessive “cookie-eating” and then “excessive exercising” disorder— Lol! (If your kids know the /ie/ phonics Secret, they will LOVE watching this clip!)
Secret Stories® Superhero I
Secret Stories® Phonics “ie” Secret
And now for some teacher-fun!
These very talented teachers from Bremerton, Washington are bringing the “ie Secret” to life in their own way, which you can watch below. You can find this video and more on the free Secret Stories® Youtube Channel!
Underscoring existing reading and writing (phonics) curriculum and instruction with Secret Stories® makes kids privy to all of the letters’ “Secrets,” creating a “learner-driven” instructional environment that transforms daily reading and writing into a virtual playground for critical thinking and deeper literacy learning!
“The measure of intelligence lies in the ability to see patterns where others see randomness.”
Now let’s watch the same first graders (from Mrs. Mac’s 1st Grade Class) in a whole group mini-lesson, during which the kids have noticed that in the word light, the /i/ is making its long sound, despite the fact that there is no Mommy E® or Babysitter Vowel® in sight! This conundrum sparks a creative (and highly imaginative) conversation about letter-sound behavior that is purely driven by learners’ “need-to-know!” (This is actually one of my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE clips!)
It’s difficult to imagine, given the high level of interest and student engagement seen in this video, that these first graders are actually discussing the impact of the /gh/phonics pattern on the sound of the letter /i/ when reading and writing words like sight and night. Their enthusiasm for debating letter behavior is similar to that which is shown when discussing the behavior (or misbehavior!) of their classmates. This is because both concepts are anchored in the same familiar framework of social and emotional experience and understanding, making it easily accessible and ready for use!
“It’s neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things you don’t care about.”
— Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (Harvard Neuroscientist)
By aligning letter-behavior to kid-behavior, Secret Stories® forges learners’ own personal connections to letter sound and phonics skills, which allows inexperienced, beginning and struggling upper grade learners to easily hypothesize and deduce letters’ “most” and “next most” likely sounds. Targeting phonics instruction to the social-emotional “feeling” domain transforms letters and sounds from skills they have to learn into “secrets” they want to know! And the fact that they are grown-up reading and writing “secrets” makes them even more important and helps mark them for memory and prioritized learning in the brain!
And if you were wondering how these first graders so easily identified the different sounds for /gh/, you can learn the phonics Secret in the video, below. (Note the little girl standing next to the lady who is re-telling the Secret, as she is watching her closely to make sure that she doesn’t screw it up— Lol!)
Moving Phonics Instruction from Apathy to Engagement
All kids are naturally fascinated by the behaviors of other kids (i.e. “who did what to who, and why”) and this inherent “need to know” is what naturally drives their desire to learn more Secrets! Even kindergartners can easily remember who the line leader is, who can’t sit together, and who always gets in trouble. The same “social-emotional” learning networks that store and retrieve this information can be used to help them keep track of letter sound behavior, making it easy for them to predict their “most” and “next most” likely sounds. Secret Stories® provides the logical explanations that our brains crave about why the letters do what they do, so as to make phonics make sense! Secrets make phonics make SENSE because they are based on social and emotional frameworks that are already deeply entrenched within the learner. Knowing the letters’ “secrets” spark their natural curiosity. motivating them to engage more with text.
“Giving” Phonics Skills, Not “Teaching” Them for Accelerated Access to the Code
To wrap things up, I just had to share this wonderful email and picture that was sent to me by Aimee Meyer and her first grade class from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Receiving letters like this one mean EVERYTHING to me, and I cannot thank her enough for taking the time to send it!
Dear Katie,
I just wanted to share our latest first grade classwork at St. Thomas More in Baton Rouge. My student made up their own Secret Story posters…..”Drop the “y” to add “ed” and “es! We adore our Secret Stories! I’d feel so lost without it! My school sent me to New Orleans a couple of years ago where I got to meet you and listen to you speak. Afterward, I went home and purchased the Secret Stories Classroom Kit as soon as could!
Thank you so much.
You don’t know how many little lives you’ve changed.
Aimee Meyer
PS Every K-4 classroom in America needs to implement Secret Stories!
https://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/secret-2Bstories-2Bphonics-2Bfeed-2Bthe-2Bbrain-2B.jpeg7681024Katie Garnerhttps://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Secret-Stories-Phonics-Method-Logo-1-copy.pngKatie Garner2015-04-11 01:28:002019-04-27 11:19:50Working With the Brain to Fast-Track Phonics Skills for Reading
It Takes More Than Individual Letter Sounds to Read and Write!
I sneakily took this pic at the end of snack the other day….
These 6 kids were engrossed in telling the Secrets (and trying to figure out the ones we haven’t learned yet!) The little guy in the stripes has become our unofficial “Word Jail Warden!” He can spot an ‘Outlaw Word’ a mile away! We will start ‘paroling’ some of them soon!”
Kjersti Johnson- Kindergarten Teacher
Phonics on Steroids: “Warp-Speed” Access
to the Reading & Writing Code in Kindergarten!
A Guest Post by Kindergarten Teacher Kjersti Johnson
As teachers, I think we have all had that moment when we sit down with one of our students and they completely knock our socks off! This post is all about one of those moments.
Yesterday, I had just gotten my afternoon class of kindergartners settled into our Dailies….they were spread around the room, some reading, some writing, some listening to books on iPod shuffles, and a few shopping for new books.
I looked around to see who I would confer with (one of my favorite times of the day, by the way!) I started with Abel.
Now let me tell you about a little kindergartner named Abel.
He is one of the sweetest little guys I know. He has an amazing smile, and he is also VERY excited about learning!
He is an English Language Learner who entered kindergarten knowing 7 letters and 0 sounds. He worked SO hard the first weeks of school to learn his ABC’s and by October, he knew ALL 52 upper and lowercase letters! (the Better Alphabet Song was a huge success!)
So back to yesterday……
I sat down next to him and asked him to read to me. That’s when he pulled out Arthur’s Halloween.
I looked at him and said, “Oh, this looks like a great picture read. Can you tell me a story to go with the pictures?” This is kindergarten after all, and it’s a tough book! He gave me a strange look, and then…….He was READING it!
Later in the day, I had him read it again so that I could video it, and here he is reading Marc Brown’s Arthur’s Halloween.
ELL Kindergarten in October—”Spotting Secrets” in Arthur’s Halloween
“Before”….?
Didn’t stump him. He saw that Babysitter Vowel®o telling e to say its name! He also spotted /o/ and /r/ who can “never make up their minds when they get together,” and read it like a pro!
Then we got to “making”…. and guess who was able to use the Babysitter Vowels® Secret to figure out whether /a/ would be long or short?!
He knew it wasn’t right when he first read it, but then he remembered the Secret! (and please excuse me telling another student, TWICE, to go color their work! ;-)
“House”….?
Rough-housing /ou/ and /ow/ saying “Owwwww!” No worries.
Secret Stories® Phonics ou/ow Secret!
“Look and spooky”….?
Knowing the Secret, he switched sounds for /oo/ like a pro!
Secret Stories® Phonics /oo/ Secret
I was BLOWN away! And so I made poor Abel read that page to everyone I could find! I was so proud of him! (and by the way, he is determined to read the whole book now, and I have no doubt that he will!)
This morning, I shared the video with my principal, our Dean of Students, and our LAP teacher. The question of how and when I use the Secret Stories in my class came up, and I thought to myself, “When don’t I use them???”
The Secrets aren’t limited just to “reading” time. We use them ALL DAY LONG, which in half-day kindergarten, is only about 2 hours and 40 minutes. (Oh, did I forget to mention that I teach half-day kinder?!) That’s not very long, which is why getting the most bang for the buck in the short amount of time we have is critical. Secret Stories® makes what used to seem impossible EASY! (It’s like phonics on steroids!)
Literally not a moment that goes by that the kids aren’t spotting Secrets.
We look for Secrets in our poems…..
We use yellow and blue for “popcorn” words. We “butter” the new ones and put blue dots under the ones that we already know. Then we use a green highlighter to find Secrets.
And honestly, I have to say, now that the kids know the Secrets, I spend almost no time at all on memorizing sight words, except for the small handful that really break the rules and have to go to jail, as most of the words the kids can just read.
We look for Secrets in Science….
Look at the picture above to see how many variations of the word hibernate we found when reading our big book in our whole group Science lesson! One of the kids spotted the er Secret, then another spotted the /or/ and /ing/Secrets, and we were off! Next came the Babysitter Vowels®, which they used to help them figure out whether the vowels would be long or short. Some students knew the Secret sounds immediately, and others had to check the posters first before sounding out each part, but they were all able to read all of the words— and write them!
No one was left out of the reading and writing fun because we all had one thing in common— we all knew the Secrets! That day, we did more reading and writing in Science than in our designated reading and writing blocks, combined! What better way is there to show beginning learners what these Secret skills are actually for!
My favorite thing is what happened the following day when I was working with a small group and heard Abel yell from his seat across the room, “Mrs. Johnson! Mrs. Johnson! Look, I found the word hibernate in my book!”
And sure enough, he had.
Even for an ELL Kindergartner in October, sounding out the word hibernate with the Mommy E® was easy!
We use Secrets when we write…..
See the /ow/ and /ing/ in snowing and the /ou/ in mountains!
We look for Secrets when we read the directions on our math papers.
Words like draw and count with the “letters who love each other” (au/aw) and the “letters who don’t” (ou/ow) can’t fool us!
I almost never have to read the math story problems to my kids anymore because they can do it all by themselves using our Secrets!
Secret Stories® has opened up so many possibilities…..there seems to be no limit to what my kindergartners can do. It has really changed everything.
And while I do still have kids that are just chugging along at their own pace, like sweet little Abel, they are ALL sucking up the Secrets— even those who are not always ready to apply them. And that’s okay, because I know they have the “keys” in their pocket that they will need to unlock the words they want when they are ready, just like Abel did.
I can’t thank Kjersti enough for that deep dive into all of the wonderful things that she’s doing in her kindergarten classroom. I will be doing a part 2 “follow-up” to Kjersti’s post, so stay tuned! (You can catch another post by Kjertsti here!)
For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.
https://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/sample_er_ur_ir_color.gif502600Katie Garnerhttps://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Secret-Stories-Phonics-Method-Logo-1-copy.pngKatie Garner2015-01-17 00:57:002021-01-10 15:07:08“Phonics on Steroids” for Kindergarten Reading and Writing
The following scenario is one that could only happen in an early grade classroom, so I know all of you reading this will relate! It’s perhaps the most perfect example of “out-of-the-box” learning and authentic writing I’ve ever come across in all my years teaching first grade, so I just had to share it! (It’s so entertaining that even your students would it!)
Greetings and Happy Holidays from Mrs. Mac and her First Grade Munchkins!
Our adventure began with our sweet, beautiful, and loving class Elf, Sparkle. Sparkle is a foreign exchange elf from the North Pole, sent to us by Santa, himself!
As you can see, Sparkle really gets into all of our lessons, especially story time!
The kids love her and she became part of our class family.
As it happened, we were right in the heart of our Gingerbread unit when Sparkle started having flash backs from last year’s Gingerbread Fiasco! It’s difficult to talk about, but Sparkle had gotten tied-up by some pesky gingerbread men. She was so traumatized by these cookies that she no longer enjoys listening to their stories, so she made a sign boycotting Gingerbread Week, and even went to the extreme of hiding all of our Gingerbread books!
The kids were worried about her, and they assured her that they would do everything they could to protect her this year, but just as Sparkle began to feel safe and sound…tragedy struck! Despite our class efforts, the Gingerbread Kids ran away again, and Sparkle, being the kind friend that she is, tried to stop them, only to find herself tied-up AGAIN!
Once the kids calmed down, they were able to read the note that Sparkle left for us…
……all by themselves!
It was a very exciting moment when we realized that our ability to read could actually save elves’ lives… and you’ll be happy to know that our Gingerbread friends were found, and Sparkle was safely cut free.
Extricating Sparkle
Now, I had to tell you this story to set the stage for the REAL story.
So sit back, relax, and prepare to laugh as you step foot into our crazy little classroom again for a first-hand account of this magical and adorable holiday adventure….
So the real story begins one brisk morning when I discovered a referral on the floor of my classroom. It was accompanied by Sparkle’s “No Gingerbread” sign, some cookie crumbs, and an empty bag of gingerbread cookies. As I leaned in to read the referral, I discovered that it was from our principal, Mr. Mauger. He had apparently walked in on a horrific sight…. Sparkle EATING her gingerbread friends!!!! Now, we are a very close school family at Cottonwood Elementary and we don’t require a ton of rules to remind us to do what’s right. In fact, we live by the magnificent 7 Guidelines and the Rachel’s Challenge program, and neither, in any way, shape, or form, allow for eating our friends! The unfortunate situation left Mr. Mauger little choice but to take Sparkle down to his office for an ‘in-house suspension’ until further notice.
“Sparkle needs to solve problems without hurting or devouring others…”
Now Sparkle’s referral may seem unfair in the real world, (as after all, gingerbread cookies are for eating!) but if you are open to the world of: magical elves living in your classroom for the month of December, cookies running away from your students, and Polar Express trains pulling up to your classroom door to drop off bells, cookies and hot chocolate…. then we must uphold the unwritten rule that we even if cookie friends get us mad and tie us up, we should not retaliate by eating them…right?…right!
Mr. Mauger, our principal, breaking the news about Sparkle
“I’m going to have to call Santa about Sparkle’s behavior”
The looks on their faces were priceless!
Because our principal is a very reasonable man, he told the kids that he would consider allowing Sparkle to come back if they could put “in writing” why Sparkle did what she did.
Once he received something in writing and had a chance to speak with Santa about the situation, he would make a final decision.
For the kids, this was, without question, their most important assignment ever!
They would need to use all of the writing skills they’d acquired to persuade our principal to free Sparkle! If they failed, Sparkle would spend the only holiday they would have with him in Mr. Mauger’s office!
The kiddos were confident, however, as they knew that their writing skills had developed greatly in the past few months, and so, without wasting a moment, they began the task of putting into writing all of the reasons why Sparkle should be freed.
The letters they wrote are absolutely ADORABLE! They were written from the heart…. and with the Secret Stories, they did so with ease! No “sticking-to-sight-words” for these guys!
They were on a mission to save Sparkle and did not shy away from big scary words! Instead, they tackled them head-on using the Secrets to sound them out and say exactly what was in their heads that they wanted Mr. Mauger to know!
“Sparkle can fix it, just like the Grinch”
“Sparkle was just mad because the gingerbread men ‘raped’ her up with some string…”
“What if you were Sparkle and got tied-up? Wouldn’t you eat them too?”
After the kids finished up their letters, I sent them directly to the office for Mr. Mauger to read. The kids eagerly awaited their appointment with Mr. Mauger at 11:00 that afternoon.
When our appointment time finally came and we entered the outer office, we could hear Mr. Mauger talking to Sparkle, which we captured on the following clip….
Oh the look on their faces!
So we all settled (i.e. squished) into Mr. Mauger’s office and prepared for our meeting. Now as probably know, Santa is crazy-busy and nearly impossible to get hold of this time of year. However, as you may not know, school principals have a “special line” that they can use for emergencies… and this definitely qualified! So Mr. Mauger was able to reach Mrs. Claus, who apparently was handling all of the “behavior business” that particular day. Mr Mauger had apparently been so impressed with our letters that he’d decided to read them to Mrs. Claus! You can see bits of our principal’s conversation with Mrs. Claus regarding Sparkle’sinappropriate behavior, below.
Tensions run high as the conversation continues….
You could have heard a pin drop during the phone conversation with Mrs. Claus.
The kids await Mr. Mauger’s decision, as Sparkle’s fate hangs in the balance
Finally, after a long conversation with Mrs. Claus, and careful review of the kids’ heart-felt documentation regarding the reasons for Sparkle’s poor choices, Sparkle was given another chance and was able to come back to our classroom for the remainder of December! The kids were so proud of themselves and so happy they could help a friend. Through their writing, they were able to give Sparkle the Elf a voice and save her holiday!
I hope you enjoyed hearing about our unusual holiday writing adventure, as it’s part of my attempt to incorporate Common Core-rich lessons, while still including a little holiday magic! With a supportive principal, amazing kiddos, and the Secret Stories under our belts, anything is possible! No challenge is too great for these kids! They are so confident in their ever-increasing abilities as readers and writers!
Wishing Everyone a Happy Holiday!
Thank you to Mrs. Mac and her brilliant munchkins for this wonderful holiday post!
Now if this doesn’t take the cake for the sneakiest persuasive writing lesson EVER, I don’t know what would! What a fun and engaging way to motivate young writers… using ‘real-world’ (well, kind of ;) experiences that are personally meaningful to learners!
“I sneakily took this pic at the end of snack the other day…. These 6 kids were engrossed in telling the Secrets (and trying to figure out the ones we haven’t learned yet!) The little guy in the stripes has become our unofficial “Word Jail Warden!” He can spot an ‘Outlaw Word’ a mile away! We will start ‘paroling’ some of them soon!”
I received this adorable picture and description from kindergarten teacher, Kjersti Johnson, along with the following email…
I teach two sessions of half-day Kindergarten, with my morning class tied to our Intensive Support Class (4-8 fully inclusive kiddos) and my afternoon class with half ELL, plus a few in the am too!)
I knew the Secret Stories was a keeper last year when one of my Intensive Needs kids, who was really struggling with speech and connecting letters and sounds, pointed to his name and said, “Those letters are bad. They always stick out their tongues!” and then proceeded to make their sound! Or, when my little guy, who moved to my class mid-year knowing ZERO letters or sounds, was able to read through ALL the letter sounds mixed up, singing “____ says ______, ___-___-___!” after just a couple weeks of doing the “Secret Stories® Better Alphabet Song!”
With regard to the frustration over the controversy over what our youngest learners can and can’t do, I’ve always had high expectations for my kinders, and they have always risen to meet them, often soaring far beyond!
It has been a fight to pull Kindergarten into this century. I boxed up our basal six years ago when I started using Daily 5/Cafe in my literacy blocks. My students just took off! (It’s amazing what they can do when you put the right book in their hands.) But it was Secret Stories that really allowed me to take my kids to the next level!
I love when we sit down to read something and I ask what strategies we should use, as they always yell out, “Look for the Secrets!” They amaze me every day with the new words they can read and write! Oh, and I love how they are starting to revise their own writing! I put a binder clip on their writing notebooks so they can’t fill it all in in one sitting. When they want their clip moved, they have to look back and make revisions to show that they’re ready. They will tell me, “When I wrote this, I didn’t know the Secret about this word, but now I do!”
I loved reading Kjersti email about how she uses Secret Stories® in her kindergarten classroom so much that I asked her if she would be willing to share more in a guest post, and she agreed! (She has since written another guest post on how she uses the Secrets for reading, which you can find here.)
A Class of Kindergartners
A Guest Post by Kjersti Johnson
I have always believed that there is a strong tie between reading and writing. It is one of the reasons that we spend so much time doing both in my Kindergarten class. Usually, students are free to choose their writing topic, but once in a while I give them a prompt.
This past month, we began a Gingerbread unit. In it, we have a class Gingerbread Man that decides to travel the world. While he is on his trip, he sends us many different versions of Gingerbread stories to read. At the end of the unit, he returns to our class and asks the kids to write about their favorite story.
In past years, my kindergartners would have to rely on “kid-spelling” or I would have to take a lot of dictation, but not this year! Thanks to the Secret Stories, my kids were able to write like the big kids! The only help I gave was a word bank of words they might need, but I didn’t spell them….. they did!
They helped me spell words like: gingerbread, favorite, girl, cowboy, and because, and the rest of the words they spelled themselves! They were even able to write about why they liked the story! I was so proud of my kindergartners (not to mention blow away!) that I wanted to share a couple samples, as well as some Secrets used to spell some of the words they wrote!
We also wrote about How I Ate My Gingerbread Man (after eating them of course!) Once again, I was blown away by how they used the Secret Stories they knew to figure spellings for words they wanted to use in their writing… not just “word wall” and “word family” words, but ANY words! I loved watching them stop and look at (or even walk over to) our Secret Wall!
This next paper was written by one of my ELL students. When assessed in September, he knew seven letter names and zero sounds. Thanks to Secret Stories Better Alphabet Song, he was able to identify all of the upper and lower case letters, as well as their sounds by October!
To write the stories they want to tell, kids need access to the “whole” code, not just bits and pieces of it!
Here is what he wrote….. independently! (And yes, I was in tears when he showed me!)
If you look carefully, you can see where he had erased and added more sounds after re-reading it, and then realized that it didn’t make sense. He also went back and changed “hed” to “head” because he said it “didn’t look right.”
As Katie often says, “experience is the best teacher,” and because this little guy knew lots of Secrets, he was reading up a storm, which is how he knew that the word didn’t “look right.”
And I especially love how this next little guy added a “crunch, crunch, crunch” at the end!
I am just so proud of my kindergartners, I could burst, which is why I wrote to Katie! And with only HALF of the school year under our belt so far, I can’t wait to see where we by the end of this year!
We are so thankful to Katie Garner for sharing the Secrets with us! Kjersti Johnson/ Kindergarten Teacher
If you would like to start sharing the Secrets with your class, you can download this free mini-poster sample set, along with the “Write Like They Read” Zoo Keeper Strategies, which is like a magic trick for helping beginning learners understand that they need to “capture” as many sounds as they can in words they want to write. (Watch two short clips about the ZooKeeper Strategies for beginning writers here and here.)
We have so much to share with you and so little time to do so! Busy, busy, busy we are at this time of year, but my students have been hounding me to sneak on Katie’s blog again and brag about their growth.
“Mrs. Mac…
We need to let the people know how we’re doing!!!”
I have learned over the years to never argue with determined 1st graders, so let’s get right down to the bragging….
These kids are officially crazy-in-love with Secret Stories!
I cannot get through a lesson without them freaking out because they’ve discovered a Secret Story ‘hiding’ in a word.. and they go literally insane if the word has more than one Secret in it!
Here are some of our super-exciting Secret Stories-moments…
In this first clip, the kids were so excited that we actually had to stop what we were doing that moment and come to the carpet, so that they could “work the word.”
Notice that they are holding their hands over their sweet little mouths, which is what they do whenever they notice more than one Secret Story in a word. This helps them “hold the Secret in” so that they don’t accidentally blurt it out (completely their idea!) Aren’t they just adorable?
Spotting SECRETS in the word ‘dangerous!’
This class has some real performers in it, and I love to tap into their hidden talents as much as possible! Here are few future actors performing their favorite…… the ousSecret! When o, u & sget together, poor little o is always left out, and so it’s just “US!”
We spent 30 minutes acting this out. They got so into it that they just didn’t want to stop! Below is a clip of one of my favorite groups acting out the ous Secret…
My favorite time to share and hear Secret Stories is during guided reading. I loveGuided Reading! I could listen to them read all day. Using the Secret Stories has completely changed my approach to teaching kids how to read. It literally took all the stressoff my shoulders!
I used to really stress when I came across a word that I knew they couldn’t sound-out or identify using picture-support, but now I know the “Secrets” for all of those tricky words…. and so do THEY!
Guided Reading is now stress-free (or at least as stress-free as a first grade classroom can be!) The following clips include children on a variety of different reading levels, as I wanted to show how knowing the “grown-up” reading & writing Secrets make cracking the code easy for ALL learners- regardless of their level!
So here are some very proud kiddos who couldn’t wait to share their Secrets with you.
Can you see the pride in their faces?
Sneaky Y®, Mommy E®, and the ‘al’ Secrets!
The “ce/ci/cy” Secret
The “ay” and “ing” Secrets
And here is a clip from our very first Reader’s Theater Production. These kids couldn’t believe that they could read a 40 page play…. but they did! And they even made their own costumes (well, headbands) to help them “get into their parts!”
Readers Theater
Now this next clip requires an introduction.
This little guy is just a love bug. He comes from the most amazing supportive family. I have a great relationship with his mommy, and she’s a regular mommy-helper in our classroom. She was initially very concerned about her little guy, as there had been a few rough experiences in the past, and like any loving parent, wanted her baby to be successful!
At the time I’d captured this video, his mommy had just walked in as I’d started recording, so I quickly shooed-her right back out! Look at the pride in his face when he discovered that he could not only read the “big” word on the page, but the WHOLE sentence, as well!
When his mommy saw this clip, she had tears… and this is just the beginning!!!
I’m so thrilled that I will get to share all of his continuing growth with all of YOU this year!
Spotting the ‘ar’ SECRET in the word ‘shark!’
And finally, I have one more beautiful moment to share.
This student came rushing to the guided reading table when I called her group. The words she said touched my heart. What had initially sold me on Secret Stories was the idea of teaching my kids to read in a ‘stress-free’ way.
I teach it because I love it and it works, but I’m not the only one who had a life-changing moment. Listen to Lana as she explains why she loves Secret Stories so much, and how it has changed her life.
The “ing” Secret—
Lana shares why she loves knowing the Secrets (This one’s my favorite!!!)
Well folks, thanks so much for taking a quick peek into our little classroom,
and I hope that these small glimpses will help inspire you own Secret Stories journey!
xoxoxo
Renee McAnulty
PS I want to thank Katie for allowing me to guest-blog!
This approach has fostered a new way of thinking about teaching kids to read that has truly changed my life. Thank you for making me a better teacher for my amazing kids!!!!
https://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/secret-stories-book-access-foil-copy.jpg552736integritivehttps://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Secret-Stories-Phonics-Method-Logo-1-copy.pngintegritive2014-12-12 23:51:002018-07-17 16:59:44And We Have READERS!!!
I’m so excited about this that I couldn’t wait to share it!
I sometimes feel like a broken record when I say that the SECRET STORIES® is not a program, but easily accessible, reading and writing tools to be used throughout the instructional day, and across all content areas. In a nutshell, the Secrets™ simply provide learners with logical explanations where otherwise there would be none!
That said, it’s rare that I create something specifically for their use, since pretty much anything kids can read or write will work just fine!
However, there are times when shining a spotlight on specific skills, or groups of related skills can be extremely helpful- especially for targeted reinforcement and assessment- and there’s no better time or place to do this than in small, guided groups!
With the help of some amazing teachers from Stonewall Elementary in Virginia, I’m releasing a new series of SECRET STORIES® Guided Readerswith highlighted SECRET STORIES® sound patterns!
The SECRET STORIES® are in RED and OUTLAW WORDS are in “prison-garb” font!
In addition to the targeted phonics Secrets™, the Outlaw Words words are also identified within the text and printed in “prison-garb” font!
The outlaw words are the “SECRET STORIES® equivalent” of traditional sight words, with the only difference being that they can’t be sounded-out! And so they must go to Jail! (Word Jail, that is!)
The Word Jail is similar to a typical Word Wall, except that it houses only the worst rule-breaking offenders! We put these ‘worst-of-the-worst’ words in Word Jail so that we can “remember what they so that they don’t get by us again” when we’re reading or writing!
For more details on how to create a Word Jail for Outlaw Words captured in your classroom, check out the series about them on my VLOG, or click below to watch the video below!
Each reader includes three different version of the story: a highlighted color version, a black and white ‘easy-print’ version, and a teacher copy- which has allSecrets™ highlighted (not just those targeted) for quick and easy visual reference when introducing new Secrets™and reinforcing older ones during guided group time.
Notice the “Mommy e” in PINK, as well as the vowel that she’s telling to “say its name!”
This first reader, In the Fall, will be followed by additional readers to be postedby the end of this week, so stay tuned!
While it is critical that learners are equipped with the reading and writing tools they need to “crack the codes” in text, it’s equally important to realize that the Secrets™ are simply the “keys” that unlock the door to world of reading and writing.
Making meaning is the true goal of the game!
We read and write for a purpose… and that purpose is not to accurately decode words on a page! While learners do need to know the Secrets™ to gain easy and early access to text, what develops them into fluent readers and writers is what happens after that!
Teachers spend so much time trying to teach kids HOW to read, that often there’s not enough time left over for thinking about WHAT they’re reading… which pretty much defeats the purpose of WHY we read in the first place!
Below is an example of Deanna Jump’s Guided Reading 101 (from my guest post on her blog) with some key SECRET STORIES® posters to show how easy it is to help kids sound out words with those tricky letter and phonics sounds….even in Kinder! Download the free poster SECRET™ phonics poster sample set and see for yourself!
![SIGHT WORDS AND PHONICS]](https://www.thesecretstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/space-saver-placards.jpg)
