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Anne/K/FL - I am proud and privledged to introduce Grace Vyduna Haskins author, speaker and expert that will enlightens us tonight with Roots: A Developmental Sequential Word Study Program.
Grace/IL - Jo, what do you use to teach first grade spelling?
Anne/K/FL - Grace what is the main objective of your program?
Grace/IL - Anne, my main objective is to teach children to read. While it's a spelling program, if we expect children to be perfect spellers, we're going to fail. The relationship between the two is real but more from spelling to reading than from reading to spelling.
Jo - I actually teach Social Studies.7th gr but we have many slow readers.
Grace/IL - Jo, can you tell us what are you are trying to do to help these slow readers?
Jo - I give them vocabulary before the chapters. Our school has resource room and reading classes.
Jo - Is your program phonics based?
Grace/IL - It's phonics based in the sense that it works with word patterns but every phonics concept is taught in context and recycled repeatedly so it doesn't seem like phonics per se.
Kathleen - Grace, do you think the lack of phonemic awareness in numbers of students is new? Perhaps the movement away from hearing and learning nursery rhymes, etc???
Grace/IL - No, I don't think there should ever a movement against nursery rhymes and poetry. What I put together makes up for the lack of direct instruction in many programs.
Anne/K/FL - Why did you choose Roots as your title?
Grace/IL - Anne, that's a good question. I almost ran a contest in our school to choose a title. Then it dawned on me -- one has to start with roots and it all grows from there. I've now finished "Trunks."
Anne/K/FL - I like your title as I get the impression that you start building a strong tree to live forever.
Kathleen - [I was thinking that perhaps our culture has become too busy for parents to recite and teach their children nursery rhymes]
Grace/IL - Kathleen, I spent so many years not reaching certain students. Over a third were below grade level readers. I was able to reduce that to less than 10%.
Jo - Can you give us an example of a concept taught in context?
Grace/IL - Jo, I teach a few letters, then immediately create words from them. Then we begin to use those words in simple sentences and add other words as new sounds are learned.
Mary K&1 - Grace, could you please give an overview of your program? How did it help reduce the low achievers to 10%?
Grace/IL - Mary,I truly believe the key lies in having children write the words from teacher dictation. Before I reached that level I posted lists of words on the chalkboard and had children sound through them. That showed some improvement but the real change came through writing. An overview -- The program takes the children through all the short, long, and more complex vowel patterns in first grade. My students were writing words like "stretch", "badge", etc.
JT/1/VA - Grace, I am now reviewing beginning and ending sounds. No vowels yet. Today I had the children write those sounds they heard me say in words. Am I on the right track?
Grace/IL - JT, I think you're on the right track. But why not go one step further and start them with short a words. Have them write the whole word, not just individual sounds.
Mary K&1 - What thinking strategies do you teach or guide the children to employ?
Grace/IL - Mary, I really didn't concern myself with advanced thinking strategies. That can come with reading. The thinking involved in the spelling program starts with thinking about the sequence of sounds in words.
Kathleen - Grace, what methods of teaching reading do you think are least effective? Or do you believe that many methods are necessary given the differing needs of various students? In other words, is there any one, right way?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, there's no ONE right way. However, the results of research are finally in. Just got hold of the Illinois Right to Read initiative this week and they really point to the spelling issue as being very relevant to learning to read. I was so pleased with that.
patience/IL - Grace, what are your feeling on students with auditory discrimination problems? I have children in my room who I honestly beleive can NOT hear the differnce in sounds? (I am an LD teacher)What are your thoughts on teaching the vowel sounds to these students?
Grace/IL - Patience, I had to deal with that issue many years ago with a very dear personal friend. I believe that, if a child cannot hear vowel sounds, their speech would not develop. I think they hear them but sometimes have trouble discriminating between them when put to the task. My favorite book, now out of print, illustrates ways to deal with mouth positions, etc. to help children through this. Also, if you start with one vowel sound, (a), then move to (i),(u), (0), and finally (e), you'll have some success.
Grace/IL - Patience, thinking more about this, we use multi-sensory techniques to help the children work through the vowels. Teach (a) solidly and attach consonants to it.
JT/1/VA - Do you begin by teaching the whole word - c/v/c or teach consonant sounds first?
Grace/IL - JT, I start by teaching the children to print (c), using the clock to go from 2 counterclockwise to 4. The next day I used the same motion and extended it to (a), then (d), then (g), and (q), all made with the same basic stroke. Perhaps 'dad' is the first word that can be formed here.
patience/IL - What kinds of mulit-sensory activities do you reccomend? Also-- any suggestions for limiting reversals?
Grace/IL - Patience, we made clocks from textured wallpaper. Each child can have one on his or her desk. When children are taught by 'feel', reversals are really minimized. It carried over to reading. When children hesitated over a 'b' or a 'd', I just said, "Trace it on your clothing," and they would get it right away.
Kathleen - Grace, your book "Roots" is chock full of word lists ready to duplicate and sentences ready to use. They cover every vowel, vowel "team", word family. In addition, you provide assessment pages. This looks like a complete program. Is it meant to be a complete program? If not, what other tools do you suggest to accompany/supplement it?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, because we didn't know any better and still had phonics books available, we made packets where children had to write complete words to label pictures. Going back to the classroom now, I'd just concentrate more on poems, writing, and other good stuff. We did have some phonics readers. I think the ones from Sing, Spell, Read, and Write are about the best I've seen. I also had wall charts with certain words (numbers, colors, etc.). Teachers can choose to use Word Walls. I think those are great.
patience/IL - Grace- What about students who are already reversing letters? My students are in third grade and most have already developed "bad" habits...
Grace/IL - Patience, I think I'd just go back to the beginning on that issue. I'd mark up their papers with notes like, "Practice p," and make sure the parents saw them. That really helped.
Anne/K/FL - Grace what are your best strategies for teaching spelling?
Grace/IL - Anne, the spelling experts (University of Virginia people) say that first grade students should be held accountable for only short vowel words. That's their general developmental level. However, they are capable of doing much more and our students did a lot. Just dictate words daily and build spelling concepts by adding blends, digraphs, etc.
Kathleen - More of a comment: I notice that the sentences you use in your lessons are not inane. They define words and concepts. They serve a dual purpose.
Grace/IL - Kathleen, that was the purpose. Every word was used in a meaningful context. It really helps the children build vocabulary.
Kathleen - Grace, what should kindergartners be doing to begin a good foundation for what you recommend for grade one?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, I've been trying to figure that one out. There are so many differing opinions on what letters should be taught in what order. I'd like to see some cards, perhaps about 8 x 10, with textured letters on them so children could feel with their fingers. There's a program out of England, Jolly Phonics, where each book has a few letters engraved so little fingers can trace them. Also, I think more emphasis has to be placed on lower case forms in KG because so many students come to first grade knowing only capitals.
Kathleen - Would you explain what happens to the income from your book? And how can we obtain copies for our first grade teams?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, all of the proceeds from my book go to the Johnsburg Educational Partnership Foundation. I originally intended that this money be used for scholarships but I'm rethinking this -- toward the idea of providing teacher incentives to attend reading conferences. The books can be ordered through my website. School purchase orders are gratefully accepted. Anne/K/FL - Do you use any rhyming techniques?
Grace/IL - Anne, using rhyming techniques -- not necessarily in the book. Well, yes, I offer options for word sorting after the children have written their words from dictation.
Kathleen - Grace, how often (and where and when) do you present at Conferences?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, wherever and whenever I can. I'm doing a presentation for the Illinois Principals Association in October. Have done Illinois Reading Conference several times and presented at IRA.
Kathleen - Grace do the 4-Blocks procedures fit with your program? If not, which part/s do or do not?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, the 4-Blocks procedures weren't around when I did my work. I'd love to be able to play with that. I agree totally but would substitute my program for most of the Making Words activities. Just a personal thing -- I hate messing with little pieces of paper.
Anne/K/FL - What does your system incorporate that Making Words doesn't have?
Grace/IL - Anne, just a different approach. I think that I can cover more words in a given time frame. The real difference is in the WRITING. When children write to dictation, every child must be 'on task'. They may be attending with their eyes but is the mind really there?
Kathleen - Grace, what is your favorite book to read aloud to children?
Grace/IL - Kathleen, I think one of my really favorite books is "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss. I tell the children that we all reach the 'waiting place' in our quest to learn but once we figure things out, we'll go far.
Kathleen - Grace, I hope that people will follow the link to your web site to learn about your credentials, to see how much of your work has been published. You are so modest that most people who know you from Teachers.Net do not realize what an expert we have in our midst. Thank you for sharing that expertise with us at Teachers.Net:-)
Grace/IL - Thanks, Kathleen, for letting me do this. I've really enjoyed the evening.
Anne/K/FL - I agree with Kathleen I have personally met Grace and she is truly an expert in her field and a most generous person to donate her profits to a foundation to better education for children.
Mona - I would like to order the program for my third graders. I have a few that are very below level. Do I order the whole program? Both books?
Grace/IL - Mona, I think your have to decide whether or not you want to go through the dictation process. The second book recycles the information but has the students do word hunts, either from the Resource List or from their reading texts. It has more assessments and really emphasizes suffixes and a few prefixes along with pronoungs, homophones, etc. I think I'd go with the second level. Mona, I've used the second level with native American children and tried it last year with a great group of second graders. The children thanked me for bringing in 'that game' when I didn't realize it was a game at all.
Anne/K/FL - Thank you Grace for informing the audience and answering questions about your program.
Mona - I may order both to share with our 1/2 teachers. My student teacher would benefit also.
Grace/IL - Thanks to all of you whom I really consider to be some of my closest cyberspace friends. Yes, Mona, you may order both. The first one is wire bound and the second is in a loose leaf format but both are the same price. As I said earlier, school purchases orders are accepted. Grace/IL - Thanks, Anne, have a pleasant evening.
