Month by Month Reading and Writing for Kindergarten |
The Teacher's Guide to the Building Blocks |
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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.
