Tuesday, August 17, 1999
Early Childhood - Elementary Meeting
The Building Blocks of Literacy
with
Elaine Williams
Visit the The Four Blocks Literacy Center at
http://www.teachers.net/4blocks
Check the meeting schedule for future meetings
meeha/ece/tx - Hello
and welcome to our EC/Primary meeting ... tonight we are looking at the
Building Blocks of Literacy -- Month by Month Reading and Writing! Elaine
Williams will be our expert for the evening.
meeha/ece/tx - Elaine
is one of Pat Cunningham's favorite Kindergarten teachers! :-)
Kathleen - Elaine,
were you part of the development of Building Blocks?
Elaine - Yes, The
kindergarten classes at my school helped to lay the foundation for the
program.
Kathleen - There
is a lot of discussion about "why shouldn't we use word walls in k??" Why
shouldn't we use word walls (other than names) in K?
Melissa - Elaine,
do you teach full day?
Elaine - I teach
full day...... about the word wall.........The kindergarten word wall should
consist of names and only high frequency words that are taught. Too much
print on a word wall is not helpful to young students and the print must
have meaning to them.
Elaine - We use other
print in other places in the room..........environmental print such as
cereals, restaurants, snacks, logos,etc....
meeha/ece/tx - Elaine,
If I was to walk into a Kdg. class using the 4 blocks method, what would
I see? How direct is the teaching? How actively are children interacting
with print throughout the day?
Denise - Elaine -
I wonder w/ Kdg. word walls maybe a small picture to go with each word/words,
and please define the difference between building bl. and 4 blocks
Elaine - It is not
necessary to put pictures on the print wall. We call it a print wall in
Kindergarten. Also, we do not teach 4 blocks in kindergarten
Dawn - Elaine, I
will be teaching a combined Kindergarten/First grade class. How can/should
I implement and blend Building Blocks and Four Blocks each day?
Elaine - The two
programs are different and in a combination class you will have to teach
each group......you will be able to do your writing block at the same time.
Peachy - Elaine,
are there classroom where the Building Blocks method can be observed-such
as in Clemmons, NC?
Elaine - You can
come to Clemmons on our monthly visitation days to observe. Contact Debbie
Uren-336-712-4444
Judy - We are trying
to implement building blocks in our early childhood center.
Elaine - BB is not
for pre-K but we hope pre-K teachers will read with big books and have
writing centers. You can begin some of the work on name at the end of
the year in pre-K.
Kathleen - The guide
for Building Blocks Literacy is Month
By Month Reading and Writing For Kindergarten - Systematic, Multilevel
Instruction, by Dorothy Hall and Pat Cunningham. You can order by e-mail
from Apples n Acorns at appnacorns@aol.com
Vicky - Elaine-I'm
using BB with the phonics program, Beginning to read, write, listen, (McMillan)
My time is very limited in the mornings. Is 20 minutes enough time to work
on BB?
Lesley/K/IN - We're
having trouble working out the details for 1/2 day. You'll need more that
20 minutes!
Elaine - BB includes
time for language experience charts and a daily morning message. We use
Houghton-Mifflin for our shared reading. After the first quarter we begin
journal writing. We spend about 1.5 hours with literacy-----so you need
more than 20 minutes
Doug - Elaine- why
do you wait to start writing until after the first quarter?
Elaine - We do lots
of modeling of writing and we do lots of shared writing before we begin
journals. Children need to know what writing is for and what it looks like
before we ask them to write.
Kathleen - Elaine,
this was asked in the BB mailring: Which is the best way to do guided reading
in kindergarten: ability groups of homogenous groups....and why.
Elaine - We do not
do guided reading in BB--only shared reading. All of our teaching is done
in non-ability groups just like in 4 blocks. Our program is multi-level
and can be taught to all. I started 15 years ago in a Title I school and
it was a lifesaver to all.
Lesley/K/IN - There
is research for 4-Blocks available. Is there good research that supports
BB which can be used for administrators, school boards and parents?
Elaine - Yes, we
do have research from S.C. where we have trained so many districts. We
have seen test scores improve as much as 40 percentile points. Our first
grade teachers love the program.
Peachy - Elaine can
you describe how you do journaling? Do the children write about anything
they wish or is there more structure?
Mary K&1 - Am
I correct in understanding that Writing Centers can be started right away?
- Free Exploration of writing materials, -- that is.
Elaine - Writing
Center- Yes we begin the writing center right away with lots of tracing
activities and lots of free exploration of writing tools. In October we
begin doing writing activities called pictionaries. We put up about 10
words with pictures on the wall.
meeha/ece/tx - Elaine
... tracing activities like ... names? shapes? lines? words?
Doug - Elaine- dotted
letters, sandboxes,etc.?
Elaine - Yes, lots
of tactile experiences at the writing center.......
me - Can Saxon phonics
be used with BB?
Elaine - Saxon Phonics
is the complete opposite of what we teach in BB. We teach students to read
texts, examine words, break apart those words and notice the letters and
the sounds those letters represent.
KinderKer - Elaine....will
the BB book that is supposed to come out in January be detailed enough
so that even us "newbie" K teachers will get the gist of how to make our
classrooms like the ones I've seen on the BB video tape?
Vicky - BB videotape?
Where can we get that?
KinderKer - I ordered
it from IESS; I don't have the address handy. Maybe Kathleen or Elaine
can put it on the BB mailring.... :)
Kathleen - order
video: http://www.wfu.edu/~cunningh/fourblocks/products.html
Mary K&1 - Contact Apples
'N' Acorns - appnacorns@aol.com
or IESS (800-644-5280; 336-996-3090)
Elaine - Yes I am
writing a teachers guide with Dottie Hall and it should be very detailed.
We hope to have schedules, lesson plans, and a question and answer section.
Kathleen - Elaine,
when will that be published?
Elaine - Our book
goes to the publishers on 1-1-2000!!!! Hopefully, it will be out by June
Kathleen - Elaine,
another question from the BB mailring: What would you say to a parent who
does not think you are teaching their child to learn letter recognition
and the corresponding sounds since there is no 'letter of the week' (which
they are accustomed to) within the Building Blocks framework?
Elaine - We begin
the year with NAMES and we cover so much work about letters and sounds.
The unit on names is our basis for our writing. The unit in the book is
called Getting to Know. I use names all year- the students respond to their
own names and the names of friends .......much better that rote learning.
Doug - When you give
a concepts about print test to your kids, do you call on kids who are strong
on the particular concept or need help?
Doug - Elaine- there
is an activity in BB called Act It Out. When my children pantomime a story,
they usually just retell it. How can they get a deeper understanding of
the story through drama?
Elaine - We use story
cards to retell stories and act it out and puppets. We give the print concepts
tests to everyone.
Doug - Elaine- I'm
sorry. I meant do you choose children during shared reading who need to
improve on the particular concept or are strong and serve as a model?
Gumbo/K/La - Do your
kids lose interest with the name thing--have 27 kids and it takes so long
to get thru the names.....last yr kids got impatient.......
Elaine - My kids
love names and I do a lot with names all year. You see in August they do
not understand that CH diagraph in Chase's name but by Dec. someone notices
that...........
KinderKer - Elaine...are
you talking about the Clay print concept assessment?
Elaine - We developed
our own print concepts assessment. We use a letter-sound reading recovery
tool from Ohio State. We give a John's IRI at the end of the Kindergarten
year.
Mary K&1 - What
are your shared reading "rules"? Only one speaks at a time, or many talking
at once - filling in omitted words, predicting, etc.
Elaine - We do read-alongs
with shared reading and choral readings--boys, then girls..........Then
we call on individuals. We cover words with post-it notes and we use those
wikki sticks to circle words we can read......we use the fly swatter to
SWAT words we ca
Kathleen - Well,
this was Elaine's first experience with live chat. :-) Elaine, thank you
for coming tonight. Will you be participating in the discussions on the
Building Blocks mailring? We sure could use your input there. :-)
Elaine - Yes I will
be a part of the mailring and hope I can help. I will be doing lots of
training this year for ERG. Look at the website for info.
meeha/ece/tx - Elaine,
thank you for being here tonight and sharing your expertise with us. Any
closing comments? Do you have a website or email address to which we can
post questions?
Elaine - Thank you
for many good questions and I hope to see you at training or come to visit
my class in Clemmons,N.C.
meeha/ece/tx - Well,
good-night, all ... thank you for being here for this discussion regarding
Building Blocks and Literacy for Kinder and Primary grades! See you soon!
Kathleen - meeha,
thank you for moderating! good-night!
Kathleen - Elaine,
we look forward to your help in the mailring and can't wait for your training
to come to a town near us!! thanks!
Elaine - Thank you
Kathleen for all of your help.
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