Phyllis E. Fischer, Ph. D.
University of Maine, Farmington
Also available: handout and catalog of information
Focusing on automaticity in reading.
When thinking about teaching reading, think about reading processors. Responses
of students indicate where to focus.
Processing the words is primarily auditory.
Orthographic – the brain processor that processes the
print. It has nothing to do with sounds.
Takes place in the back of the brain.
It responds to learned associations between letter grouping It is the processor
that keeps units such as sh, tch, ar,
eigh, together. It is the orthographic processor that has to
chunk the letters together to allow us to read. It is also the processor that
splits the words into syllables. Learns that dr is likely to
stay together and dn is not. A good reader notes this automatically.
Your brain knows that dr is a blend and dn
is not. Good adult readers are fairly good at rank ordering sounds. In den drite
our brains know that dr is much more common.
Phonological
Adds speech sounds to the reading process
Must know , (learn ) those sounds
The more sounds there are for an orthographic unit the more slowly the phonogical
processor works: - ame vs ear.
Adult readers translate spellings to sounds.
Serves to expand the working memory system
Activity takes place in the front of the brain.
Responds to the orthographical processor.
End process for the phonological processor is the sound stream. It then sends
the sound stream to the meaning processor.
The orthographical processor and phonological processor communicate and come
together.
The meaning processor must then retrieve all known meanings
from one’s lexicon. All meanings for a word are brought up.
Sends signals back to the O and Phonological processor.
The fourth processor is the context processor. This allows the child
to determine the appropriate meaning.
If the word doesn’t work in the sentence, the brain sends the word back
to the orthographical processor or the phonological processor.
The sentence: Go to the store to get some bread. This might be read as breed
(because long e is the most common sound for ea [although it occurs only 45%
of the time])
Automaticity : Doing something without having to devote conscious
attention to the task. Decoding should be automatic – and it is in good
readers.
Dr. Fisher teaches all of the vowel sounds for each letter at the same time.
Students say “long” or “short” for each mark below …
[Practice sounds for the diacritical markings]
Then say:
“short” and “schwa” for each mark below:
Each vowel has all three sounds:
Only problem with shwa is the kids would rather say shwa then a sound.
Practice the sounds (short a is “shrug your shoulders “a”)
Goes over 5 vowels for a long time.[ It takes less than five minutes to do this.
]
Teach closed and magic e syllables simultaneously.
Then give worksheets to have the students apply the concepts. Kids can sort
cards or do the worksheets. Again here they are just doing the orthographic
piece.
Then the students go through the Phonological piece. They work through the words
and do the vowel sounds (but they don’t read the words) The goal is to
practice the sounds of the letters NOT the word. By teaching all the vowel sounds
early you show the vowel- consonant-e (or magic e) syllables
C and G, teach both sounds at the same time. Don’t use pictures to teach
sounds. As soon as the kids have learned both sounds, then give a worksheet
to go over this.
These activities are timed.
In teaching this, knowing the rule isn’t the big deal. They must be able
to use their orthographic processor to read. Have older kids use the newspaper
and highlight the “c and the letter next to it” You want to have
them strengthen their orthographic processing by looking at the two letters,
the first one and the one after it. One or two rows of practice is helpful.
Ca ce ga ge are done soon, the gi doesn’t appear for a while so it can
be held off.
Contrast cards are great for vowels and consonants. (Dr. Fisher does lower case
only) Put three letters on a card, don’t put a c or a g on the contrast
cards. Stick to units for which there is only one possible answer.
Consonant digraphs (she calls them single sound consonant teams). The problem
with learning these in isolation is that the orthographical processor is going
to look at letters in isolation. Teach them together and have them arc or v.
Phyllis does sh th ng nk together.
For teaching the vowel teams and the vowel “r” units Dr. Fisher
uses picture mnemonics (or visual images) to teach the sounds. For all the units
there is a worksheet (ar, er, ir, or ur, war, wor. The only “wor”
that says wor is worn. All the rest are “wer”. After they get it,
they arc to practice it. By teaching the wor and war they begin to see (orthographic
processor) and notice the wor (were) sound. The ‘r’ controlled can
be put on the board (the picture mnemonics.)
If you do the diacritical marks on the words, lways begin just with orthographical
process (arcing) don’t add the reading yet. There is a contrast card for
the vowel – r
ea = e as in bead [most common sound is always on the left] ea=e as in dead
[second most common] ea = a as in break , great, steak (these are very common
words, BUT not a common presentation of the sound.
wa = wa as in wash and the second one.
Consonant –le words are common to kids vocabulary and they occur a lot
in writing and they are most regular. 450 of the words are regular, only a few
“people” is one, Always divide the syllable before the consonant
–le. This syllable pattern will take a few lessons for the child to reach
automaticity.
80% of consonant syllables have a closed syllable to start. Present the contrast
with the closed and the open. Don’t have them mark the consonant before
the vowel. The orthographic processor doesn’t care which sounds are long
or short. After they mark all the words then make the contrast cards.
Do the contrast cards every day for a couple months. This is necessary for automaticity.
Then read the words. The c-le without the double consonant is easier. Teach
the double consonant by marking the vowel and crossing out the first (place
holder) consonant.
Speed drills: It is essential that the kids read words all the time. The orthographic
piece is more fun, but is must change. First consonants taught p, f, m, s, t.
Always time for one minute. Count the amount of correct words read in one minute.
Use a line graph to track. Keep phonetically regular speed drill words on one
side, phonetically irregular on the other side.
How do you get the kids to go fast on the drills? Always review the words before
you start. (Most kids will love will do the speed drills) Just say “start
when you are ready: and then have them begin. If kids are jerky in their reading,
read with them until they read smoothly. Ideally you should have not interaction,
but if necessary. You can speed kids up by pointing. Point a tiny bit faster
than they are going.
On the irregular words kids may read the word wrong and repeat it. Read it for
them, just before they read it.
You can do anything to speed them up. If there are two or three kids, they can
read alternately.
With students who have learned to decode and are accurate, but not automatic,
have them do as many speed drills as you can do per day.
Instructions for doing the speed drills are in the speed drill set.
Fluency:
Flowing or moving smoothly and easily.
Reading in context should be fluent. It can’t be automatic because it
involves attention to the task.
Marylin Adams – check out her material
Presentation on teaching materials and methods that develop fluency.
Impact:
Wow – this was great instantly useful information. The speed drills can
be used next week. Her method of looking at the four reading processes was very
clear and well presented.