Tag Archive for: eu/ew

Teaching Reading & Writing in Kindergarten

“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!

Secret Stories® Phonics in Kindergarten Writing
Note the eu/ew Secret in the word crew! (plus the Sneaky Y®, Babysitter Vowels®, Mommy e®, or, oo, th, er/ir/ur, au/aw, & ou/ow Secrets!)

 

Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

Note the er/ir/ur Secret in the words “girl” and “her” (plus the Sneaky Y®, Babysitter Vowels®, Mommy e®, or, oo, th, ea, au/aw, sh, & ed Secrets!)

Transforming skills kids have to learn into Secrets they want to know!

Secret Stories® Phonics Secret "ER/IR/UR"
A future kindergarten teacher….

Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

Note the au/aw Secret in the word because (plus the Mommy e®, th, er/ir/ur, ea, Babysitter Vowels®, ey/ay, & sh Secrets!)

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!

He now also knows all of the Secrets and is using them to read and write! (On a side note, I had taken a leap of faith and done as Katie suggested, which was to begin telling the Secrets from Day 1, so as to acquire them simultaneously with the individual letters and sounds and though I’d never done that before with kinders, I am now a BELIEVER!!!

Teaching Phonics for Beginning Writing

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!)Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

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!

Secret Stories Phonics— Kindergarten Writing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

You can read Kjersti’s second guest post on Secret Stories® for  reading, here.


Secret Stories® Phonics for Teaching Beginning Writing

“Kindergarten Writing on STEROIDS!” 
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.)
Free Secret Stories Phonics Posters Sampling Set
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Pack
Download the FREE Mini-Poster Sample Pack and Start Sharing Secrets Tomorrow!
FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Writing Strategy Pack—"Zoo Keeper and M&M Quizzes"
Click here to download the FREE ZooKeeper Beginning Writing Strategy Pack!
And to all subscribers, you should have received a free download link in your email for the Secret Stories® Guided Reader, My Class, so be sure to grab it fast before it expires!
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader “My Class”
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Secret Stories® Phonics Guided Reader— My Class
Until Next Time, 
Katie :-)
Katie Garner Literacy Consultant— Secret Stories® Author

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Katie Garner Education Keynote Speaker and Secret Stories® Phonics Author
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Secret Stories® Phonics — Cracking the Reading Code with the Brain in Mind!
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And we have READERS!!!!

My first graders are literally OBSESSED with the Secret Stories!
 


Hello again from Mrs. Mac and her munchkins!

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 ous Secret! 

When ou & s get together, poor little o is always left out, and so it’s just US!”

Secret Stories® Phonics "ous" Secret

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 love Guided 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 stress off 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!!!!
Until Next Time,
Katie Garner :-) 

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Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

 

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“But NINE other people were doing it too!”

As September draws to a close, that initial excitement over “going back to school” begins to wear off.

Most students by now have become acclimated to their new routine and the increased learning and behavior expectations in their new classroom.  But for those who haven’t, the behavior and/ or progress notes continue to be sent home, prompting conversations like the one below…
“But NINE other people were doing it too!”

This is my younger daughter, Emma (when in first grade) doing her best to stand up to my “teacher-mommy” grilling about her red behavior note, sent home at around this same time of year.  It was so hard to keep a straight face! I gave her a big hug at the end (although it’s cut off) for finally coming clean about what had really happened, and I’m happy to say that she never again hid a behavior note! (though it would be several more weeks before she finally stopped earning them! :)

Aside from showing that it’s harder to justify your behavior note when your mom is a teacher,  this video also demonstrates the importance of trust between teacher and parent, specifically in regard to the feedback provided regarding concerns about their child’s progress in the classroom.

It always seems that it’s around this time that the honeymoon-stage comes to an end, prompting bubbles to burst, and tempers to flare.

This is why it’s so very important that we continue to reinforce to our parents (especially at the early grades) that we truly are all in this together and that either everybody wins or everybody loses.

Even the most experienced teachers can feel frustrated when the “thoughtfully written, time-consuming, and well-intentioned” note sent home, detailing a student’s behavior or academic progress, is met with an accusatory response or angry rebuttal.

Parents don’t always realize that it takes a tremendous amount of time for teachers to provide them with detailed, written accounts of situations regarding their child, (like the one received from my daughter’s teacher, above) especially on an ongoing basis, but as teachers, we know that these communications are critical to student success.

Even our most well-intentioned correspondence, however, is likely to be met with animosity until trust has been established.

Secret Stories® Phonics — Notes Home

So here are just a couple of simple tips that I’ve found work wonders to build and maintain parent-trust!

Give parents your personal phone number! 

While this may seem counter-intuitive, it’s actually a powerful show of trust, and one that parents who haven’t yet gotten to know you (especially at the earliest grade levels) truly appreciate.

And don’t worry…..most of your parents won’t even use it!  Knowing that they have it is enough.

For those parents who do call, they are the ones who would have otherwise “stewed all day and night” over something that is easily clarified or handled!  Their being able to call you immediately means that you (or your administrator!) will not be dealing with a gigantic mess the following school day!

Implement an “open-door” policy when it comes to your parent volunteers in your classroom!

Most classroom teachers have designated days and times each week during which parents may sign-up in advance to come and volunteer in their classroom.

My policy was a little simpler… “Anyone, anytime, any day!” 

While this may sound like a nightmare waiting to happen, it’s actually just the opposite!
The natural concern is that when given the option, the most difficult parents may never leave! 

Surprisingly, those are the parents that rarely, if ever, actually come!
Presumably, because they can, which means that there are no “hidden secrets” for them to find out.

And those who do come, even for just for a few minutes here or there, can actually play a huge role in increasing student-momentum in both reading and writing!

My parents knew they were welcome in our classroom any time to volunteer, which most often involved their working with individual students or small groups on instructional-level text.

My volunteer corner was set up as an extension of our guided reading groups, with each student’s group reading material contained in a folder with their name, and marked by color to indicate the “like-level” student groupings.  As student reading levels continued to advance at varying rates, the groups were flexible and constantly changing.

Volunteers were able to walk in and without direction, pull either single students or groups (depending on who was available and what our class was doing at the time) with which to work.  It was easy to keep track of “with whom and when” each student had last worked with a simple sign-in/ tracking-sheet that volunteers would fill-out each time they came.

Using parent volunteers as an extension of daily guided group reading ensured that student folders were always ready to go and up-to-date, with each student’s most current level reading material already in place!

Secret Stories® Phonics— Volunteers for Reading Group

And speaking of “increasing student-momentum in reading and writing” …

In my last post, I shared some video clips of a first-grade class who’d just begun using the Secrets,  and doing their best impressions of the Superhero Vowels® & Mommy e®, so to wrap up today’s post, I want to share this clip of the same group of first graders, who have now progressed to identifying the Secrets!

Mrs. Mac’s first-graders singing”Where Is” from the SECRET STORIES CD 
(using Secret Stories® Porta-Pics for individual student reference & easy home use!)
 
Secret Stories® Phonics "Porta-Pics" for Individual Student Reference & Home Use
 
The SECRET STORIES® Musical Brainteasers are designed to mimic the decoding and encoding processes, as students must rapidly sing from ‘sound to symbol’  and ‘symbol to sound” via a variety of progressively difficult and constantly-changing song manipulations.

 

….and here’s a group of Kinder-Intervention students singing the ‘short & lazy’ vowel sounds!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH

 

Until Next Time,
Katie :-)

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FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster Sample Anchors
Try a “taste” of the Secrets with YOUR class 
and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

 

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

 


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