Guest Blog: 3 Essentials for Literacy Success in the K-2 Classroom
This month’s guest blog post is by Vicki Miller a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP) with over 25 years experience. Vicki owns VIC Structured Literacy, LLC and brings a unique perspective not only as an SLP, but also as a parent and an educator with a focus on literacy. Just like me, she is passionate about making learning inclusive and accessible for ALL learners. While my posts generally have a math focus, I thought it would be interesting to explore the literacy lens on our shared passion.
3 Essentials for Literacy Success in the K-2 Classroom (that are often missing or misunderstood) by Vicki Miller
Essential #1: Speaking and Hearing
Can You Understand My Speech And Can I Hear The Errors I Need To Fix?
While common speech articulation errors have a range of normal development as listed by the American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA), speech-language pathologists are starting to intervene even earlier to correct speech production that once had longer developmental norms. The importance of correct sound development serving as a critical prerequisite to literacy skills has gained more importance in recent years. Never has it been more urgent than now to promote positive speech skills early to set the foundation for later developing academic success.
Whether it is through modeling or direct practice incorporated into the classroom as an all inclusive Tier 1 practice or a small group Tier 2 intervention, early collaboration and action between regular and special education teachers are essential to establishing the foundation for literacy success.
Understanding that letters are symbols for sounds connects speech to literacy. If our sound system for our language is not generated correctly by the speaker, we are expected to have problems attaching the precise sounds of our language to physical letters, leading to weak foundations in literacy. Some sounds that continue to have a longer timeline to develop correctly such as /s/, refer to a slight lisp or distortion that should still be addressed early by correct modeling. Intervening early for slight distortions or a slight lisp can efficiently correct what may otherwise turn into a stubborn error and a harder habit to change over time. Complete substitution of absence of any speech sound, later developing or not, would be an example of not being within normal limits and would necessitate more immediate direct intervention. Even if correct articulation may be difficult to elicit in some learners, an emphasis on correct modeling and monitoring is becoming more important in the early developing years.
VIC TIP: Have your school speech-language pathologist target common errors by teaching whole classroom groups correct lip-tongue-teeth placement positions. Keep directions short, simple and repetitive so the classroom teacher can incorporate these models and reminders into the morning or end of the day routine. Share with parents to reinforce at home. For young learners, target exposure and practice the sound in isolation and in initial one-syllable words.
For Example: To target /s/:
Direction: bite, teeth shut, blow air
Sound: “sss”
Initial /s/ word: “sun”
Essential #2: Phonemic Awareness
More Than Sound Games!
Phonemic Awareness is defined by Bright Solutions for Dyslexia as the ability to distinguish and manipulate sounds within spoken words or syllables. While phonemic awareness activities are becoming more commonplace at school it is important to keep in mind that phonemic awareness is more than playing “sound games.” Educators following evidence-based research in literacy commonly referred to as "The Science of Reading" or "Structured Literacy" approaches understand the need to incorporate phonemic awareness, best-practice activities into the classroom. A common misconception of adding this essential component as a Tier 1 all inclusive practice, is that many activities are just that, activities that provide surface level exposure, but little significant correction and training to reach the learners that do not catch on to the direct whole group instruction. Many of these activities serve as effective screeners, easily catching the students that cannot perform the skill as demonstrated in the larger group setting. Without more direct correction and intensive training to target significant student phonemic awareness errors that are not improving with standard classroom exposure activities, several students are frequently left behind and are at common risk for weaknesses in basic literacy development. Increasing educator training and support as to how to correct phonemic awareness errors when they occur are critical components to helping ALL learners become proficient with speech, language, and literacy foundational skills. Learn more on ASHA’s website.
VIC TIP: Use repetitive and consistent sound games to informally screen for students that are not learning the targeted patterns and have your speech-language pathologist follow-up by screening for sound discrimination errors (difficulty hearing, tracking, and remembering similar sounds).
Essential #3: Consonants & Vowels
Consistent CVC Decoding With NO Tricks!
After establishing proficiency in “phonemic awareness” skills, consistent decoding of a speech system’s printed letter symbols in a given language, is an important next step that requires deliberate structure and organization on the part of the educator. First sound symbols are taught in isolation /p/, followed by being able to decode simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) combinations to produce written words such as “pat.” As learners become proficient in one syllable words, those single syllables increase in combinations to produce longer words with increased strands of sounds and grammatical rules attached to them. As beginning readers are taught the sounds of their language and the printed symbols that go with those sounds, the goal is to blend those known sounds together to decode real words to understand a story or message to be shared. Often advanced sound combinations and grammatical structures of the words in our language are not explicitly taught in the classroom, but rather incorporated into early learning reading activities paired with pictures to increase word recognition and comprehension. As learners get older and picture cues are reduced in the curriculum, there are students left behind that cannot consistently identify and decode simple 3-sound word combinations containing the consonants and short vowels that were expected to be stabilized in the K-2 classroom. Time would be more effectively spent ensuring that the focus for early learning decoding skills concentrate on learning the basics of early developing sound and letter combinations in the students' targeted language. Teaching the basics with controlled text for repetition and practice in the area of decoding, allow students the correct time and repetition to become proficient in these skills. Allowing students to hear advanced language and vocabulary should continue to be part of the early developing classroom, but with a focus on auditory and visual learning as educators read rich text at the learners interest level. A common misconception is that we cannot control text for decoding and still expose our learners to rich and diverse curriculum. With a focus on ensuring the early developing sounds and letter combinations in our language are stabilized in the K-1 classroom through controlled decoding activities, we will need to spend much less time and energy fixing gaps in older students that should be ready to learn more complex structures and be able to comprehend. Through audiobooks, teacher and parent read alouds, our students will still have important exposure to advanced vocabulary and language structures that they will need to also keep at high levels as their decoding skills increase in the advanced grades. Learn more in the article Catch Them Before They Fall.
VIC TIP: Use nonwords, or made-up words to assess true decoding ability. Have students read a random list of new CVC nonwords to prove consistency in decoding skills based on matching sound to print. By using nonwords we eliminate pictures and memory hints for common words that may be inferenced or memorized and are hiding weaknesses in decoding skills.
Sum It Up!
Literacy components that need to be a priority in the K-2 classroom for ALL learners to build a solid foundation need to focus on establishing proficiency in the correspondence between the early developing sounds and symbols (letters) of our language. Stabilizing articulation, sound discrimination, and beginning consonants and vowels are all areas that become problematic in the area of literacy as a child grows if not given a strong evidence-based approach to learning in the early developing grades. A consistent, strong focus on the decoding basics, while engaging all learners through speech and reading aloud to them, not only ensures the basics are mastered but continues to grow their vocabulary and language skills. The ability to listen to higher level language forms can easily be above a CVC decoding level in the early grades. As educators we are advocates for both our students and for ourselves. By voicing our needs to our administration to provide the appropriate literacy training and support, we can meet the needs of the families that we serve. By incorporating these three literacy essentials, we are not only giving our learners true foundational skills, but also the confidence to use their voices as their literacy skills have a real chance to grow.
