Helping Your Child Succeed at School

As a parent, you are your child's first and most important teacher.

When parents and families are involved in their children's schools, the children do better and have better feelings about going to school. In fact, many studies show that what the family does is more important to a child's school success than how much money the family makes or how much education the parents have.

Every child has the power to succeed in school and in life and every parent, and family member can help. The question is: How can we help our children succeed?

These articles offer a number of ways that parents can support their children's learning by getting involved early and staying involved throughout the school year.

On the following pages, you'll find the following articles and resources:

• Talk with Your Child's Teacher
• Parent Participation: How to Get Involved in Your Child's School Activities
• Let the School Know Your Concerns

I hope that you will use the information and activities in these articles to get involved and stay involved and help your child to read better, to take on challenging math and science classes, to value the study of history, the social sciences, art and music-and to prepare for a rewarding life of continuous success.

 

Thanks and have a great week,

Ms. Nora Sierra

Lower Elementary Coordinator

What is the Difference Between Phonics and Phonological Awareness?

The methods and theories of teaching children to read have literally gone in circles. Years ago the focus was on phonics. Then studies were released that supported a whole word concept of learning rather than focusing on the individual sounds. Years passed and the tide turned again back to phonics. In the book, Scaffolding Emergent Literacy A Child-Centered Approach for Preschool through Grade 5, the authors address the issue. "There is a strong 'Back to Basics' movement in the educational and political arena, which includes an emphasis on a strong phonics approach. To a degree, the call for phonics is not unfounded. Phonics is an important tool in the literacy process. It is not, however, the only tool. The power of phonological awareness is also staunchly recognized as a very powerful apparatus for literacy development.

What is phonics?

Phonics is the connection between graphemes (letter symbols) and sounds. Because we have been readers for a good portion of our lives this relationship seems apparent and common sense. At the very core of phonics lies the alphabet. In order to master phonics a person must master the alphabet. Letters then need to be connected to their corresponding sounds. As we know as English speakers, this is easier said than done. Many letters can represent a number of different sounds. Thus learning phonics is an ongoing process for a developing reader.

Role of Phonics in Reading

As you may have noticed phonics and phonemic awareness (the understanding that words are comprised of small segments of sound) are intimately connected. Phonics relies heavily on a reader’s phonemic awareness. The reader must not only understand that words are made up of phonemes (small units of sound), he must also know a number of phonemes. Since a reader’s primary phonemic awareness develops through speaking and listening, most children come to reading with many phonemes stored in their knowledge banks. Phonics instruction connects these phonemes with written letters so that they can transfer their knowledge of sounds to the printed word. This is why phonics instruction is an important component of early reading education.

The goal of phonics instruction is to help readers quickly determine the sounds in unfamiliar written words. When readers encounter new words in texts they use the elements of phonics to decode and understand them. Phonics instruction has a strong impact on the reading abilities of young children. Those receiving phonics instruction in the early grades (K-1) showed significant gains in their reading comprehension and spelling abilities and moderate growth in oral reading ski

What is Phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes--in spoken words. Before children learn to read print, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes (the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in a word's meaning).

 

Why Phonemic Awareness Is Important

 

·    It improves students' word reading and comprehension.

·    It helps students learn to spell.

 

 

The Importance of Sight Words in Kindergarten

 

In classrooms across America, the development of sight word recognition continues to be a top priority when instructing emerging and beginning readers.

The purpose of reading is to construct meaning from text. This “meaning” is dependent on the rapid, automatic, and effortless recognition of words. According to Patricia Cunningham in Phonics They Use, “In order to read and write fluently with comprehension and meaning, children must be able to automatically read and spell the most frequent words. As the store of words they can automatically read and spell increases, so will their speed and comprehension.” (Cunningham, 2000). Sight word recognition improves reading fluency and automaticity, allowing the student to focus their efforts on the more mentally demanding task of reading comprehension.

Students become efficient and confident readers and their attention can now center on decoding words that carry meaning to the text. This allows students to focus their efforts on “reading to learn” rather than “learning to read.” As a result, their ability to verbally recall and organize information from text drastically improves. These students not only begin to develop reading comprehension skills, but also become more accurate, detailed, and organized when verbally recalling the information.

We must remember that reading is one of the most critical skills students learn.

One of the most important goals in teaching young students to read is making sure
they are completely proficient with Sight Words.
Sight Words (sometimes called the Dolch Words) are some of the most frequently
used words in the English language. Even though they number only about 200, Sight
Words comprise approximately 50 to 70 percent of any given general, non-
technical text. Therefore, teaching Sight Words as early as possible is considered
a crucial part of elementary education.
There are two additional reasons why it is important to give Sight Words an extra
priority. Firstly, phonetic analysis can't be applied to many of the Sight Words.
Secondly, quite a few of the Sight Words cannot be taught through pictures (e.g.
"if", "soon", "but", etc.).
Even though it may take a considerable effort for children to learn the entire
Sight Word List, it is well worth it. Having the ability to recognize these words can
dramatically increase confidence and improve reading proficiency of the beginning
reader.
Because complete fluency with Sight Words is the foundation of literacy, a variety
of techniques are used to teach them to children. Repetition and practice are very
important in making Sight Words recognition automatic. Students should practice
sight words nightly until they recognize all 200 words on the Sight Word list.
Below you will find an online resource to use to help ensure that your child builds
this important foundation for literacy.

 

http://www.mrcpl.org/literacy/lessons/sight/index.html

Why Preschool matters!

How important is preschool?

"There's increasing evidence that children gain a lot from going to preschool," says Parents advisor Kathleen McCartney, PhD, dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "At preschool, they become exposed to numbers, letters, and shapes. And, more important, they learn how to socialize -- get along with other children, share, contribute to circle time."

Statistics show that a majority of kids attend at least one year of preschool: According to the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), more than two-thirds of 4-year-olds and more than 40 percent of 3-year-olds were enrolled in a preschool in 2005. "Children who attend high-quality preschool enter kindergarten with better pre-reading skills, richer vocabularies, and stronger basic math skills than those who do not," says NIEER director W. Steven Barnett, PhD.

"Every child should have some sort of group experience before he starts kindergarten," says Amy Flynn, director of New York City's Bank Street Family Center. Music and gymnastics classes are great, but what preschools do that less formal classes don't is teach kids how to be students. Your child will learn how to raise her hand, take turns, and share the teacher's attention. What's more, she'll learn how to separate from Mommy, who often stays in a music or gym class. All of this makes for an easier transition to kindergarten. "Kindergarten teachers will tell you that the students who are ready to learn are those who come into school with good social and behavior-management skills," Smith says.

In fact, educators have so recognized the importance of giving kids some form of quality early education that about 40 states now offer state-funded pre-K programs.

What will my child learn?

In addition to strengthening socialization skills -- how to compromise, be respectful of others, and problem-solve -- preschool provides a place where your child can gain a sense of self, explore, play with her peers, and build confidence. "Kids in preschool discover that they are capable and can do things for themselves -- from small tasks like pouring their own juice and helping set snack tables to tackling bigger issues like making decisions about how to spend their free time," says Angela Capone, PhD, senior program manager at Southwest Human Development's Arizona Institute for Childhood Development, in Phoenix. "Plus, 4- and 5-year-olds have begun asking some wonderful questions about the world around them -- what happens to the water after the rain? Do birds play? Quality preschools help children find answers through exploration, experimentation, and conversation."

 But what about learning his ABCs?

"Young children can certainly learn letters and numbers, but to sit kids down and 'teach' them is the wrong way to do it," says Smith. "They learn best through doing the kinds of activities they find interesting -- storytime, talking to their teachers about stars, playing with blocks." To help kids learn language and strengthen pre-reading skills, for instance, teachers might play rhyming games and let kids tell stories. Keep in mind that for small children, school is all about having fun and acquiring social skills -- not achieving academic milestones. "Kids need to be imaginative and to socialize -- that's what fosters creative, well-rounded people. It's not whether they can read by age 4 or multiply by 5," says Flynn. An ideal curriculum? Parading around in dress-up clothes, building forts, and being read to.