Soraya Coccimiglio

1. Six Weeks of the Fab FiveA Template for Assembling and Utilizing the Florida Center for Reading Research Student Center Activities Soraya Coccimiglio Janice DiGiovanni

2. Today’s Goals • Become familiar with the Florida Center for Reading Research Student Center Activities website • Review the use of “Reading Centers” as a tool for differentiated instruction • Learn the 8 steps for implementing and managing student centers in the classroom • Receive and review a template for creating a workshop for your own district or ISD/RESA • Laugh and learn from our mistakes • Assemble a sample mini intervention kit

9. The “Fab Five” • Based on Report of National Reading Panel of 2000. • Core elements of successful classroom reading instruction • Conclusion: Instruction must be systematic and explicit in the following five component areas (the five “Big Ideas” of reading): • Phonemic Awareness (ISF & PSF) • Phonics (Alphabetic Principle) • Fluency (NWF & ORF) • Vocabulary • Comprehension

10. The “Fab Five” • Systematic instruction: The direct presentation of skills/concepts in a pre-specified sequence taught in a logical, defined, order. • Skills and concepts begin with the most simple, moving to the most complex • Student objectives are clear, concise, and driven by ongoing assessment results • Students are provided with appropriate practice opportunities which directly reflect instruction

11. The “Fab Five” • Explicit instruction is taught directly through teacher modeling, guided practice, and independent practice (scaffolding instruction). • Teacher models and explains (“I do it”) • Teacher provides guided practice (“we do it”) • Students practice what the teacher modeled • Teacher provides prompts/feedback • Teacher provides supported application • Students apply the skill as the teacher scaffolds instruction • Independent practice (“you do it”)

12. Phonological Awareness • Explicit awareness of the phonological structure of words in one’s language. • Awareness of words in sentences, syllables, onset rime segments. • Awareness of individual phonemes in words.

13. Phonological Awareness • Goal: Develop an awareness that words are composed of individual sounds, or phonemes, and to develop the ability to manipulate sounds in words.

14. Phonological Awareness • Activities should include the following PA skills: • Rhyme • Students practice recognizing and producing words that rhyme • Alliteration • Students practice repeating and producing alliterative phrases • Sentence Segmentation • Students practice segmenting sentences into words • Syllables • Students practice blending and segmenting syllables in words • Onset and Rime • Students practice identifying the initial (onset) consonant(s) and the vowel/consonants that follow • Phonemes • Students practice blending, segmenting, manipulating, and deleting the individual phonemes (sounds) in words

15. Phonics • Relationship between letters and the sounds they represent • Teaches sound symbol correspondences

16. Phonics • Goal: Help children use the sound-symbol relationship to read and write words.

17. Phonics • Activities should include: • Letter recognition • Students practice matching, identifying, and ordering letters in the alphabet • Letter-sound correspondence • Students practice identifying and matching sounds to letters (initial, final, and medial) • Onset and Rime • Students practice identifying initial consonant and any consonants that follow it; then practice blending, sorting, and segmenting the onset and rime • Word study • Students practice sorting, blending, segmenting, and manipulating the sounds of letters in words and practice identifying high-frequency words • Syllable Patterns • Students practice blending and segmenting syllables in words • Morpheme Structures • Students practice blending compound words, roots, and affixes

18. Fluency • Ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with prosody • Bridge between word recognition and comprehension • Emerges through supported and repeated practice in automatic word recognition

19. Fluency • Goal: Help students to recognize words automatically

20. Fluency • Teaching activities should include: • Letter recognition • Students use timed practices to identify and order letters in the alphabet • Letter-Sound Correspondence • Students use timed practices to identify letter sounds • High Frequency Words • Students use timed practices to read words • Oral Reading • Students use timed practices to read with accuracy • Students practice reading with prosody

21. Vocabulary • The meanings and pronunciation of words necessary for communication. • Categorized as oral (listening and speaking) or reading (reading and writing).

22. Vocabulary • Goal: To provide students with an understanding of the meaning/use of words so they are able to comprehend what they are reading.

23. Vocabulary • Activities should include: • Word Identification/Words in Context • Students practice identifying words • Students practice using words to complete or form sentences • Words That Describe/Word Meaning • Students practice identifying and producing descriptive words • Students practice identifying and producing the meaning of words • Word Categorization/Word Knowledge • Students practice sorting and producing words by categories • Students practice identifying synonyms, antonyms, and homophones • Word Structure/Word Analysis • Students practice identifying compound words, contractions, and affixes • Students practice identifying similarities and differences between the meanings of words

24. Comprehension • The ability to understand and get meaning from spoken and written language. • The ultimate goal in learning to read.

25. Comprehension • Goal: Teach children specific strategies to use for understanding text as they are reading.

26. Comprehension • Activities should include: • Sentence Structure and Meaning • Students practice identifying important text elements and arranging words to make sentences. • Story Structure • Students practice identifying the sequence of events (beginning, middle, end) and story grammar (setting, characters, problem, solution, important events) • Monitoring for Meaning • Students practice organizing information to gain meaning • Main Idea/Summarizing • Students practice stating the main ideas in their own words • Students practice summarizing large sections of text

27. Using Center Activities to Provide Differentiated Instruction

28. Why Center Activities? • Center activities allow the teacher to work with small groups needing interventions beyond the core reading program • Center activities can be incorporated into the 90 minute reading block • Center activities can be effective, prescriptive interventions • Center activities can reinforce skills and supplement the core reading program

29. Brain Storm Activity: What are the challenges in implementing reading center activities?

30. What is Differentiated Instruction? • Matching instruction to meet the diverse needs of learners in the classroom. • A provision of varied learning situations, (whole-class, small-group, or individual instruction) to meet the needs of students functioning at different skill levels.

31. What Happens in a Reading Center? • Students participate in purposeful activities that are a reinforcement and/or extension of what has already been taught explicitly by the teacher. • Students work in small groups, pairs, or individually, while the teacher is conducting Teacher-Led small group interventions during the 90 minute reading block.

34. 8 Steps to Implementing and Managing Student Centers in the Classroom

35. I. Form Flexible Groups Based on Assessment • Keep group sizes small and reduce group size when necessary for intensive support • Base groups on instructional need with specific instructional strategies in mind • Consider attitudes and behaviors • Monitor the progress of high risk students more frequently • Use progress monitoring data, teacher observation, and, when needed, diagnostic assessments to formulate flexible groups

36. II. Identify Appropriate Center Activities Based on Assessment • Students participate in activities either independently or with help from a peer of higher skill ability (“the just right” challenge) • Though activities should engage students, there need not be a lot of fluff

37. Differentiated Instruction Experts Say: “If it takes longer to make something than it does for children to use it instructionally, then don’t bother making it.” Debbie Diller “Not the Fluff”— Anita Archer “Teach the Stuff”

38. III. Design Center Management System • Develop a Center Management Board: a visual that lets students know where they should be, when they should be there, and what they should be doing. • Make the board large enough to be seen by all students from different areas of the room. • Matching icons should be on the management board and in the center areas to help students quickly locate centers. • Students must be taught how to independently use/read the board. • Handout

39. IV. Implement a Behavior Management System

40. School-wide and Classroom-based Behavior Management • Students need to be actively engaged and on task in order for centers to support learning. • Teacher focus should be on Teacher-led Center/Small Group Instruction rather than off-task behavior of students.

41. What students need to know… • What to do when something does not work • What to do when they do not understand the activity at a center • What to do when they complete an activity at a center • Whom to go to for help • How to clean up • How to decide who goes first when engaged in a pair or group activity

42. T-Charts: Listening Center Looks Like Sounds Like

43. Things to consider when centers go wrong… • Did I effectively and explicitly teach the activity? • Were center and transition behavioral expectations explicitly taught? • Do I frequently provide positive feedback for appropriate behavior (5:1 ratio)? • Did I introduce too many new centers at once? • Have the students mastered the skill and need to move on? • Is the center too difficult for students to do independently? • Are student-partners matched appropriately?

44. Give Explicit Center DirectionsIt is essential to explicitly teach each activity before students are expected to participate in the center • Teacher models and explains the activity (“I do it”) • Teacher provides guided practice (“We do it”) • Teacher provides supported application (“We do it”) • Independent Practice (“You do it”)

45. VI. Organize the classroom • An organized classroom enables students to: • Easily locate materials • Focus on academic tasks • Use “Center” time productively

46. VII. Manage Transitions to Protect Instructional Time • Teach set routines and expectations for changing center, putting materials away, and cleaning up center areas • Establish and teach a signal that indicates it is time to change centers • Keep a brisk pace when transitioning between centers. • To reinforce skills with younger students, use songs, rhymes and word games during clean up

47. Implementing and Managing Student Center Activities Source: http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/studentCenterActivities23.htm.

48. Establish Accountability To Keep Students Engaged and Monitor Student Performance • Students graph their performance • Provide students with score sheets for games and other activities • Students submit their work in assigned folders when appropriate • Partners correct each others work • Parapro or other instructional assistant monitors Center work

49. Establish Accountability To Keep Students Engaged and Monitor Student Performance • Have “with-it-ness”—even though teachers are involved with other students in intense small group activities, they must be aware of what is going on in Center activities • Provide frequent feedback on center work to: • Prevent students from practicing errors • Instill the importance of quality work • Convey the importance of each academic task Remember 5:1 Ratio!

50. What We Know for Next Time: “Live and Learn” FAB FIVE Tips Sheet