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Electronic Resource

Project Overview

Project Description

Prepare an electronic resource of activities and ideas for teaching reading and writing that you will be able to use with your students in the future. Maintain this resource so that it reflects topics taught during each class session, notes on assigned readings, and/ or questions you have about related topics from the course. The purpose of this assignment is twofold: First, it will allow you to organize various resources obtained through the class. Second, it will provide a hands-on resource for you to use in your future teaching career. To complete this assignment you should: Develop a system for gathering, organizing, and labeling materials obtained throughout and beyond the course (e.g., 5 major components of reading instruction - phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, reading comprehension, and writing, or by material topic - chapter reflections, projects, questions, class notes, etc.). The main goal is that the resource is accessible and becomes usable when you are teaching.

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Electronic Resource

Phonemic Awareness

http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/PDF/G2-3/2-3PA_3.pdf

This PDF is an actual phonemic awareness lesson by the Florida Center for Reading Research that includes the objectives, materials, and explanation of the activity involved. The phonemic activity includes separating words into two different syllables or sounds in order to find the word that is made by deleting the second sound. 

http://www.pre-kpages.com/phonemic_awareness/

This webpage includes photos and explanations of various activities that can help young children develop phonemic awareness. There are available downloadables and printables of bingo games, rhyming cards, lotto game boards, and other books and programs that teach phonemic awareness. 

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/making-friends-phonemes

This Reading Rockets article by Bruce Murray is about what all children need in terms of practicing their phonemic awareness. Murray goes through practices that parents and teachers can do with their young children to help them become phonemically aware without overwhelming them too early. Furthermore the article discusses the following: a focus on a basic set of individual phonemes, activities designed to make each phoneme memorable, and practice finding each phoneme in spoken words. 

http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/408/

Marilyn J. Adams, Barbara Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, and Terri Beeler provide a different perspective on phonemic awareness in this article. They specifically examine research on how phonemic awareness impacts reading development, the structure of language, and what curriculum would be best to approach instruction of phonemic awareness including links to activities that teachers can use. 

http://pbskids.org/island/preview/games-phonemicawareness.html

At this webpage on PBS Kids.org, teachers can find online games that specifically are aimed toward helping students develop phonemic awareness. Games included are: Word World: Dog's Letter Pit, Between the Lions: Blending Bowl, Between the Lions: Fuzzy Lion Ears, etc. 

http://teams.lacoe.edu/documentation/classrooms/patti/k-1/teacher/assessment/tools/tools.html

This is a link to a webpage that provides resources to teachers on the various assessment tools to evaluate phonemic awareness. Assessments included are Recognizing Rhyme Assessments, Phoneme Blending Assessment, and Tests of Phonemic Segmentation. 

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-now-brown-cow-phoneme-awareness-activities

This article is a blurb by Edwin Ellis who explicates how phonemic awareness activities can help children with their later reading ability. He diagrams exactly how to go about creating a phonemic awareness activity, why these are important, what exactly phonemic awareness entails, and even how to help students who are struggling with phonemic awareness.

http://www.earlychildhoodteacher.org/blog/5-quick-easy-and-fun-phonemic-awareness-activities/

This webpage consists of a layout of various games and activities that teachers can do with young children to develop their phonemic awareness. Some of the activities include listening activites to help children recognize sounds, rhyming activities that help the child recognize patterns in language, and syllable activities that help the child become aware of the smaller segments within words.

Phonics

http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/index.htm

This is a website full of fun phonics games that are all about Clifford the Big Red Dog! Students are able to have a Clifford book read aloud to them in English or Spanish, or they can play a game that requires the student to match similar sounds, create words using knowledge of vowel sounds, etc.

http://www.abcfastphonics.com

This website is very helpful for teachers because it provides minilessons for the students to explore on letter sounds and names. Students can explore the site and click on letter blends to hear their sounds and listen to other various definitions of phonics terms.

http://www.havefunteaching.com/activities/phonics-activities

This resource is helpful for teachers who are looking to download activity plans online. There are plenty of phonics activities for teachers to choose from including activities practicing syllables, middle sounds, ending sounds, beginning sounds, hard and soft c g sounds, etc.

http://www.teachingdegree.org/2012/12/03/new-elementary-school-teachers-and-phonics/

This blog post is helpful for brand new teachers who haven't really began to explore how to teach their students phonics. The author delves into the basics on the foundation of phonics, how to help students develop their skills in phonics, instructional tips and tricks, and resources that new teachers can also use to help them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wB6vCgVpm2Q

This video gives an example of how one teacher explains phonics and different vowel sounds to her students. She segments up a word based on the number of syllables it has, and then gives each syllable a fun symbol to represent it. Ultimately, she makes up a sentence using those symbols so that the children can more easily remember how to segment the word.

http://www.proteacher.com/070011.shtml

This webpage provides readers with links to all kinds of phonics activities. From practicing beginning sounds, to practicing consonant digraphs, this page has a lot of different activities to choose from.

http://bogglesworldesl.com/phonics.htm

Similarly, this resource also provides multiples mode of representing phonics lessons! The webpage provides most everything, from printable worksheets to whole activities. One can also click on the grade level that they wish to teach and have activities representing that grade level.

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/

This is a game that is super engaging for children and students that requires them to recognize beginning sounds of words. The game delivers this instruction in a fun interactive way that also helps to keep the volume down on their excitement (as they are putting words into the "quiet machine" to match them to the beginning sounds).

Vocabulary

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/teaching-vocabulary-elementary-gaetan-pappalardo

This resource is a commentary on how vocabulary development best fluorishes. The author articulates that child-parent dialogues is the most effective way for children to efficiently learn new vocabulary. Because of this fact, the author talks through how teachers and parents can use this information to shape children's vocabulary development inside and outside of the classroom.

http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/curriculum-instruction/6-fun-ways-to-teach-vocabulary-words-in-your-classroom/

This blog points out several practical ways that teachers can teach new vocabulary words to their students. These activies include using drawings, videos, brainstorming, acting (like charades), stories, and word of the day activities.

http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-strategies-5-ideas-instructing-vocabulary

This resource also gives readers several instructional ideas for teaching vocabulary. It expands upon five different strategies including: using semantic maps or graphic organizers, having students teach their peers, searching for new words in various texts, using venn diagrams, and concept cubes.

https://www.flocabulary.com/pre-and-post-tests/

This webpage describes how to use pre- and post-assessment practices in the classroom when evaluating and teaching vocabulary. It points out how pre- and post-assessment can be beneficial for students to see how much they have learned throughout the lesson, and to give them confidence in their vocabulary development. 

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/classroom-vocabulary-assessment-content-areas

This article provides a detailed account of vocabulary assessments and how teachers can teach vocabulary while maintaining evidence that the students have learned vocabulary. It begins by explaining how a teacher devoted more time to teaching vocabulary and felt that her students had gained much more knowledge, yet they did not do well on their standardized vocabulary assessments. From this situation, the article continues to delve into what standardized tests measure, and how teachers can balance their instruction and assessment based on this understanding. 

http://www.education.com/games/reading/sight-words/

This resource is great for younger students who are learning the basic sight words. This website provides many different online games that students can interact with to practice their vocabulary sight word skills.

http://blog.maketaketeach.com/the-need-for-explicit-vocabulary-instruction/#_

This blog post takes an RTI (Response to Intervention) approach when it comes to teaching vocabulary. The author explains tier I, II, and III vocabulary words, as well as how to most effectively teach the vocabulary words and how much the students must know and be instructed on

http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Six-Steps-to-Better-Vocabulary-Instruction.aspx

Robert Marzano wrote this article about the instructional strategies used by teachers to teach vocabulary. He explains what research shows are the best techniques to use when teaching vocabulary and why. Specifically, Marzano explains about a six step process that teachers can use to scaffold their vocabulary lessons. 

Comprehension

http://www.jstor.org.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/stable/41405625?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

This article is about how reading aloud to students helps them create meaning in their literacy development. The article does a great job at explaining how beneficial parent-child read alouds are in the development of comprehension within the child's development.

http://www.readingresource.net/teachingreadingcomprehension.html

This site has a lot of resources for teachers on how to help comprehension in readers in the general education classroom, and also in readers with dyslexia. This particular webpage explains the different ways that students are able to comprehend the text and create meaning from their reading.

http://www.funenglishgames.com/readinggames.html

This website provides various games for students to work on their reading comprehension. The games are interactive with the student and include practice with following directions, poetry, nonfiction, and dictionaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HDkqGZc9o0

This video shows a teacher explaining how she goes about teaching reading comprehension while showing the audience with an example of a picture book. The teacher explains that when teaching comprehension, you must ask the students about what is happening in the story, what they think the character's emotions are, and what they predict to happen in the future of the story.

http://www.education.com/activity/comprehension/

This website includes a plethora of comprehension activities for teachers to use in the classroom. The activities are all printable and include scavenger hunts, peek-a-boo books, magnetic word stories, etc. 

http://www.learner.org/workshops/teachreading35/pdf/teachers_know_comprehension.pdf

This article explains the relationship that exists between the reader, the context, and the environment that the student is in that all attributes to how the student creates meaning. Based upon this knowledge, teachers will better be able to help their students gain access to the most effective comprehension strategies. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/287597126180797506/

This Pinterest find is a cute comprehension poster that teachers can print out and put in their classroom to remind students how they can create meaning from their texts. The poster is called the Reading Comprehension Strategy Checklist and includes using background knowledge, making inferences, understanding the author's purpose, asking questions, etc. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Xw9yoYCRY

This video that is narrated by children explains how asking questions while reading can be a very effective strategy in gaining understanding from the text. The students in the video explain that when they read and ask questions at the same time, their brains look for the answer which results in a better understanding of the text

Motivation

http://pnwboces.schoolwires.net/cms/lib03/NY24000991/centricity/domain/11/9706160248.pdf

Linda Gambrell wrote this article about the research behind how children's motivation to read affects their reading development. She focuses on six elements that have been researched and said to affect a child's motivation to read. 

http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1032&context=education_ETD_masters

This study focuses specifically on researching how technology affects literacy instruction. After interviewing and observing several classrooms at the third and fourth grade level, it was found that using technology to enhance literacy instruction is highly beneficial to student's motivation and engagement in reading activities. 

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2013/01/23/Four-Keys-to-Motivating-Struggling-Readers.aspx

This particular article discusses the four factors involved in the motivation of students. These factors include: competence, autonomy/control, interest/value, and relatedness. For each factor, the author explicates how the teacher can use them in their lessons to help cultivate motivation, as well as what the teacher should not do in order to avoid losing their student's motivation. 

http://www.cssu.org/cms/lib5/VT01000775/Centricity/Domain/34/ThoughtfulLiteracy.pdf

This article discusses motivation to read in relation to several different aspects including: gender, thoughtful response, and age. This article examines the aspects of motivation and how different factors can affect a student's motivation to read. 

http://www.teachhub.com/top-12-ways-motivate-students

This webpage provides practical ways that teachers can implement within the classroom to motivate their students to read. Some of these strategies include: praise, high expectations, giving students control, tracking improvement, etc. 

http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1525&context=theses

This study examines the relationship between reading comprehension and motivation. The authors did their research based upon a tenth grade classroom and ultimately found a close correlation between the motivation and reading comprehension. In other words, the higher the student's were motivated to read, the better their reading comprehension turned out to be. 

http://www.bookadventure.com/Home.aspx

This website is a great resource for kids to go online and interact with what they read and motivate them to keep reading. The site rewards students for reading by giving out prizes and allows the child to take control of what books they read and what quizzes they take, etc. It is a great technological tool to help student's be more motivated to read. 

https://storybird.com/create/

This site is also great for older students to explore their own motivations to read and write by giving them the power to choose various art pieces to exemplify their writings or the texts that they are reading. Storybird allows the reader to create their own versions of stories they read or even reinvent the stories that they have written through visual pieces of art. 

Fluency

http://www.k12reader.com/reading-fluency-and-instruction/

This article describes several ways that teachers can most efficiently include fluency in their instructional practices of teaching reading. Some of the ways include: modeling, sight words instruction, guided oral reading, silent sustained reading, etc. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bSTUbRpVZk

This video describes an activity that helps students develop fluency in their literacy development. The video explains an activity where the students walk around a circle while reading, and have to physically stop themselves when they get to a punctuation mark. Teachers can use this activity to emphasize the importance of punctuation when reading with inflection and proper fluency. 

http://msjordanreads.com/2012/02/26/fluency-boot-camp/

This blog is written by a teacher who explains an activity that she has used to teach her students about reading fluency. The activity is called fluency boot camp and involves speed drills, phrasing drills, readers theater, etc. The teacher explains that you can do the fluency bootcamp in whichever way that you choose, but calling it a "boot camp" is something that can procure interest from the students and motivate them to participate and better their reading skills.

http://www.readingrockets.org/reading-topics/fluency

This link leads to a video that describes a 2nd to 3rd grade after school reading program for struggling readers that focuses specifically on fluency. The video explains how the program is able to develop fluency skills in struggling students by using a word web to illustrate words with their meanings and related words in order to increase the fluency skills of the students. The basis for this activity is the theory that with the development of a wide range of vocabulary knowledge comes the further development of fluency as well. 

http://www.readingresource.net/readingfluencyactivities.html

This particular website is specifically designed for students with dyslexia. The site provides multiple activities and printouts for teachers to use in their classrooms to help their students with their reading fluency; particularly those students who have dyslexia and are struggling readers. 

http://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fluency-tutor-for-google/ejajakfhhhhkifioabcekjjlhpoiijfa?hl=en-US

This resource is extremely beneficial for teachers to use with struggling students because it is a Google Chrome Fluency Tutor that is completely online and interactive. The program helps students who need extra help and also assess the student and report their progress back to the teacher, saving a lot of time and energy for the teacher in the long run. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/140878294565474286/

On this Pinterest pin, there is a fluency checklist poster that teachers can print out to post on the wall of their classroom for students to reference. The checklist includes reminders such as: accuracy, rate, expression, and punctuation. 

http://www.teachingwithamountainview.com/2013/04/top-10-tips-for-building-fluent-readers.html

Lastly, this blog describes a few tips that teachers can use when teaching reading fluency. Within these tips such as, reading out loud, poetry, task cards, etc., the author provides pictures of posters and organizers that she has used to help her students grasp the concepts. This resource is especially helpful because future or current teachers can see exactly what the blogger used for her lessons and the materials she used to support her student's learning.