And teachers. Elisa Elisa Waingort Grade 2 Spanish Bilingual Dalhousie Elementary Calgary, Canada
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart. —Helen Keller Visit my blog, A Teacher's Ruminations, and post a message. http://waingortgrade2spanishbilingual.blogspot.com/ These are the kinds of statements that lead to unfairly labeling students as failures. Renee On Aug 28, 2009, at 4:59 AM, Amy McGovern wrote: > > Hi Jennifer, > > > > I did not read all the posts leading up to this--but thought I'd share > something on the reading/testing of non-sense words. My school > district invited Dr. Ted Hasselbrin ( I may have misspelled his last > name) to give our key note this year. He did an excellent job of > delving into the science of reading. > > > > One of the things he shared is that the best way to be sure students > have become "fluent" with the alphabetic principal is to test them on > non-sense words. He works with mostly middle and high school kids who > did not master the alphabetic principal in elementary school. When > these kids were given a list of site words, many of them would be > extremely accurate. When they were given a list of non-sense words, > they had no idea how to attack them. > > > > Here's my point: any multisyllabic word, or any word that you may > have never seen before has a lot in common with non-sense words. > Students must be absolutely fluent in the alphabetic principal in > order to advance their reading skills. A non-sense word test does a > very good job of mimicking what kids need to be able to do when they > have no where else to look but at the word...no pictures, no adult > help, nothing but their own tool box of skills...and keep in mind that > at some point, even context will break down as a way to figure out > meaning... > > > > Fluency in the alphabetic principal needs to be rock solid by third > grade or students will fail at reading and eventually at school. > Non-sense word tests have there place in the testing arena because > they give us good information on how kids attack words they have never > seen before. > > Amy McGovern > > Reading Teacher > > Direct Instruction Specialist > Educational Consultant > 715-966-6645 "Learning isn't a means to an end; it is an end in itself." ~ Robert A. Heinlein _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
_______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
