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Dear Colleague:
It is hard for adults to imagine what it is like not to understand concepts of print because the ideas are so basic. To get an idea of what print is like for a nonreader, look at a book in Chinese or some other language that doesn't use our alphabet. You can't tell whether to start at the back or the front, or whether to read from left to right or right to left, and the symbols are simply squiggles on the page.
For most children, some basic concepts of print are learned well before they enter Kindergarten as parents read out loud to them. Children who have not had rich experiences with books come to school without the most basic understandings of print, and have difficulty catching up. As students learn to read, more concepts of print become important for them to understand.
In this newsletter, we focus on print concepts and what the Common Core State Standards have to say about this foundational skill. You'll also find activities and products that can help you make sure that every student meets the standards.
Without print concepts, your students may be as lost as I would be trying to navigate a text in Chinese.
Joan Westley, Newsletter Editor
editor@primaryconcepts.com
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Common Core State Standards
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Print Concepts are part of the Foundational Skills strand in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The authors of the standards make it clear that print concepts should not be taught as an end in of itself, but as part of a complete reading program. Also, importantly, the CCSS encourages teachers to differentiate instruction in print concepts since there is so much variation in what students already know and what they need to learn. As with all the strands, the CCSS provides the goal posts only, and leaves it to teachers to figure out the best way to achieve those goals.
Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects: Print Concepts, Common Core State Standards Initiative, page 15.
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| Links to Online Resources | |
Concepts About Print, A. Bishop, R.H. Yopp, H.K.Yopp, Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall.
Print Concepts, Read Tennessee, readtennessee.org
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Strategies That Work
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While it's not possible to sit side by side with each one of your students and have them follow along as you read and talk about print concepts, you can achieve similar goals through shared reading. In shared reading, you focus on print in big books or in pocket charts that are large enough for everyone in the class or small group to read together.
Whatever the text you use for shared reading, you can model how you read by using a pointer to track your progress through the text and teach basic concepts of print, such as:
- Print is read from left to right, from top to bottom, and from page to page.
- When we get to the end of a line of text, we sweep down to the next line and start at the left again.
- Spoken words match up with written words when reading.
- Words are separated by spaces in print.
- Sentences start with capital letters and end with punctuation.
- Letters represent sounds; words are made up of letters.
- The orientation of letters is important; a p is no longer a p if it is upside down.
- Illustrations show part, but not all, of what we read.
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Product Spotlight: Ready to Read Alphabet Sounds
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The Ready to Read Alphabet Sounds program is a complete, year-long reading program that introduces each letter of the alphabet with an alliterative sentence. Through shared reading, teachers weave print concepts, alphabet knowledge, phonemic awareness, and beginning sight words. Great for Kindergarten, Pre-Kindergarten, or Transitional Kindergarten classrooms. You get display cards, sentence strips, a picture pocket chart, audio CD, and 4 sets of Alphabet Letter Tiles, plus the program guide.
Our special price is $85
(regular price $115)
For more shared reading, check out these Ready to Read programs at special prices:
Ready to Read Nursery Rhymes special price $75 (reg. $105)
Ready to Read Songs special price $100 (reg. $105)
Ready to Read Poetry special price $69 (reg. $89) |
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Downloadable Activity
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In this month's downloadable activities, students sort letters by their shapes and find look-alike letters. The activities are from the program The Road to Reading, an intervention program for struggling learners. For more information on this program, go to www.theroadtoreading.com
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Quote of the Month | |
"Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read."
--Marilyn Jager Adams
from Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print, The MIT Press, 1990.
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Please feel free to forward this newsletter to your colleagues and friends.
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