Reflection on BSLA Teaching

It has been more than 10 weeks since I began to implement BSLA structured literacy in my class.  I was very interested to see if some children who were not making expected progress under traditional reading programmes would develop better foundational skills to enable them to become more competent readers and writers under a more structured approach.

The children quickly adapted to the explicit and systematic teaching of all the components.  They were able to practice what was taught, gain immediate feedback when they make errors and see improvements in decoding which meant an improvement in fluency.  The transferring of knowledge is especially noticeable in their writing.  They enjoy trying out new vocabulary that was introduced in the oral narrative component and using it in both their oral and written sentences.

I was looking at the results of five children in particular. I was interested to see if there had been an increase in their scores from baseline and after 10 weeks of BSLA teaching. Some of the children had been on the programme for more than ten weeks and had a second progress check while others were only assessed at baseline and progress one check and therefore show no results for progress two.

The results show a steady increase in all three aspects of initial phoneme identity, letter sound recognition and phoneme blending. For these children any increase, however small, was something to celebrate. Reading did not come easy to them and it was important to try and pinpoint where extra attention could help them.

	Initial Phoneme Identity Baseline	Initial Phoneme Identity Progress Check 1	Initial Phoneme Identity Progress Check 2	Letter Sound Recognition Baseline	Letter Sound Recognition Progress Check 1	Letter Sound Recognition Progress Check 2	Phoneme Blending Baseline	Phoneme Blending Progress Check 1	Phoneme Blending Progress Check 2
Child A	2/10	5/10	10/10	4/8	5/8	8/8	5/10	4/10	7/10
Child B	3/10	5/10	6/10	2/8	3/8	7/8	2/10	5/10	-
Child C	4/10	10/10	-	2/8	3/8	7/8	1/10	6/10	9/10
Child D	6/10	10/10	-	3/8	8/8	-	4/10	9/10	-
Child E	3/10	5/10	6/10	3/8	5/8	-	5/10	5/10	7/10

While Child D may have been proficient at identifying identifying initial letters, it was identifying sounds and blending them together that was a problem for them at baseline testing but after 10 weeks the child was able to show a marked increase in efficiency at all tasks.

Child A has made good gains and is now showing proficiency in initial phoneme identification and letter sound recognition. This child has an understanding of how to blend letter sounds and with more practice, I think they should show a greater proficiency.

From the results, while Child B and E showed similar results for initial phoneme identity, Child E was stronger in blending tasks. Again this pinpoints next step in teaching for Child B.

In baseline tests Child C had some knowledge of initial phonemes but needed to work on how to recognise letter sounds and blend them. After 10 weeks, although there had been some progress, they still needed to work on this area. After a second progress check they were showing some proficiency.

When looking at the reading and writing data, the results have shown an improvement in both areas. In writing one can see some reluctant writers are beginning to write a simple sentence with minimal support by sounding out CVC words. This is very encouraging to see that they can use the knowledge they have learnt in reading and transfer that knowledge to writing. Even more proficient writers are trying out new vocabulary.

Looking at the BSLA programme as a whole, the children were able to participate at their own level.   The games helped reinforce the words introduced that week and Bingo became a firm favourite.  The CVC words were easy to decode which meant most of the children were able to participate with a good degree of achievement.  When being Word Wizards the children were attempting to use their spelling knowledge - such as “cute has the “u” sound so it needs an e at the end of the word”  or saying "moon has a long o sound so it has two o’s". Chain manipulations is another favourite aspects of the daily lesson.  The children who find writing difficult still try hard while those who find the task easier are getting to be faster and more fluent writers.

Some changes in teaching were not such a big leap forward.  The children are familiar with many of the Maori phrases and kupu as they were already used in the class.  The “turn and talk technique” where a partner has to repeat what was said to them is already used to help foster oral language and listening.  It is helpful for those who find whole class discussions overwhelming.  Reading aloud quality children's books and elaborating on words was already a familiar part of our class routine which the children enjoyed.

Having a large part of the programme devoted to whole class learning has meant reinforcing conversational rules - giving others wait time and respecting other children’s turn.  It is not something the class is very good at, especially in the excitement of the moment, but over the weeks it has improved. 

I have very supportive colleagues who have been able to answer most of my questions but it is not something that is learnt in a few sessions.  It is time consuming to organise the materials each day, to be thoroughly familiar with what is to be taught and to set up each lesson to be able to teach it as planned.  Testing is also another aspect which takes time.  It is not something which can be done within a busy classroom as it needs to be done in a quiet space so children can listen to the sounds and respond appropriately. But over the weeks I became more familiar with the routines.  

I have enjoyed using a programme in which the lesson plans are based on scientific research, there is a specific sequence for introducing the children to letters and sounds, it has a New Zealand context and monitors children’s achievement.  The assessment can pinpoint precisely where a child is having problems and it seems to be just as effective with the high flyers as with struggling learners.

BSLA has helped me reflect on my own spelling and literary skills.  I have enjoyed learning to have a renewed awareness of the sounds of language and print, and the relationship between letters and sounds.  

 

There is a lot to learn in a short space of time.  Sometimes it seems challenging and overwhelming but with a positive mindset, and having data to see progress and to help make decisions as to next steps, it is not so daunting.  

    

 

Beginning BSLA- Structured Literacy

The Junior area of Point England School has been implementing the BSLA structured literacy for more than two years and has seen impressive gains in lifting children's reading and writing skills.  BSLA ( Better Start Literacy Approach) is a structured approach to literacy instruction for Year 0 to 3/4.  It supports children's early reading, writing and oral language and it has been specifically designed for teaching in the New Zealand educational and cultural context.  

Letter sound knowledge skills and phonological awareness skills are systematically taught through activities that explicitly link to reading and writing, games based activities and small group reading using the Ready to Read phonics plus books.  Quality children's story books are used to explicitly teach vocabulary and build children's oral narrative and listening comprehension skills.

Assessments monitor children's growth of critical early skills known to influence reading success.  These skills include letter sound knowledge, phonological awareness, writing and oral language.  The data provides specific direction for teaching at both the individual level and whole class level.  Whanau engagement also helps maximise the opportunities children have to succeed in early literacy reading and writing.

I have begun teaching BSLA and found my class has responded well to the very explicit and systematic teaching routine.  Children begin school with a wide range of literacy skills.  Some have good letter sound knowledge while others have yet to crack the "code" for using letters in a meaningful way.  Some have good oral language skills while others find it hard communicate their wants and needs.  Although letters are introduced at two, three or more a week they are revisited during the games and activities.  The children help each other by giving wait time for others to think, play games in pairs or give clues as to where words can be found - "Look for the word that begins like this...

A positive note so far has been how some reluctant writers are getting very excited about transferring their knowledge of sounds into spelling words.   They find a joy in using words to enhance their writing.  They see how words "work" for them - if they can sound out "rumble" they can also write "grumble", or "squish" and "squash". This is helping move children from being satisfied at writing a simple sentence using the basic high frequency words to wanting to write "big words".  

Hearing the vocabulary from the reading aloud session being used in the class discussions and appearing in stories is also another plus from the programme.  Reading the same book for a week was at first commented on as "We've read this book already!".  But the unpacking and retell are now enjoyed as they find new parts of the book to explore.

I am looking forward to seeing the progress and development of skills confirmed in the 10 week testing data.  For some it might not be as impressive as for others but the positive outcomes so far and the "I can do it" attitudes that are developing are great to see.

Growing Number Sense

 What is number sense and why is it so important?  Why do we need children to develop number sense particularly in the early years of their school journey?  Number sense is simply the ability to understand number and how numbers can be connected.  A strong understanding of number developed in the early years helps children develop confidence, flexible thinking and a love of maths.

I have been working more closely with a group of children who entered school not having a strong number sense.  They were not confident in expressing ideas about numbers and remained silent during the class discussions we have daily about uses of numbers in their everyday world - how many children are at school today? If we share out the mandarins fairly can we have more than one mandarin each?   If yesterday was the sixth of June what is the date today?  I need 3 books for the Shooting Stars and 2 for the Astronauts - how many do I need altogether?

I use phrases such as "what do you think...?" and "I wonder..." to help the children share what they have learnt or how they managed to solve a problem.  All answers are accepted and discussed.  The children can see that all answers are valued and that there might not be only one way to solve a problem.  Time is given for children to "do their own thinking" and it is respected with a request not to call out but to put your hand up to show me if you think you have an answer.

When working with a range of concrete objects such as bugs, beans, dinosaurs, people and fruit I use simple phrases to talk about the relationships between groups and to match number symbols to quantities.  As there is one child who has not got a strong one to one counting number sense (able to identify and connect numbers verbally, symbolically and visually) when looking at two groups we try and work out "more" or "less" by directly comparing the groups one by one to see if the number of objects are the same or if there are more objects in one group.  

Others have improved their number sense by gaining one to one correspondence and knowing the number words in a counting sequence so they are able to use counting to answer questions.  Using tens frames to put items to be counted in a tidy pattern has helped those who "double count".  They are methodical in their counting, starting on the top row from left to right then the bottom row.

 

One can now see the importance of language.  Yes, we may practice counting and grouping but we also talk about relationships and explore and play with numbers.   The children are not simply sharing an answer.  They are learning to describe how and why, what they did that worked and explaining how was it different or the same as other answers.  They need a lot of language to be able to explain, compare and justify.  

 

   

Assessing the Development of Number Sense

 "Number sense" can broadly be described as an ability to understand and make connections with numbers.  Developing a sense of number encourages a child to think fluently and flexibly about numbers - they can see connections between numbers, find different ways of seeing a number, quickly solve simple sums in their head and solve problems that relate to their own lives.

Children gradually develop a sense of number in their pre school years but some find it difficult to make sense of number.  They find it hard to find a connection between a mathematical symbol that represents a set of objects.   It is language that helps children makes sense of mathematical concepts and gives them a clearer picture of how mathematical concepts are used.  As their language increases so will their development of mathematical ideas.  

To assess where some of my student were having difficulty I made a quick assessment that did not require counting skills to answer.  Piaget found that young children could confidently identify a group of one, two or three objects even before they had any understanding of counting so I was hoping that this would also be found in my students.  I asked children to recognise dot patterns (subitizing), recognise which group of dots was bigger, different or the same, put objects in size order and seeing what was missing from a group of objects.  When doing the tasks I asked them how they knew the answer or how they had figured it out to be able to assess the language they were using.

There were interesting observations.  Many found explaining their answer difficult if they were unable to count efficiently but would just say "bigger".  I assessed their answers on a scale of one, two or three and have now got plenty of things to work on such as gifting vocabulary when we work as a group and incorporating explicit teaching into my practice.  Explicit teaching helps children understand instructions as well as helps them comprehend what it is that they are learning.

This will help the children understand how and why they need to know about the task they are being asked to do, what they already know that could help them do such a task and what the learning goal is.  I will need to provide guided modelling, think of any problems or misunderstandings that might arise and ask the children for feed back to help me plan lessons.  Explicit teaching is more effective for beginning learners who are just learning new mathematical concepts as it leaves no room for misunderstandings.  

By using clear and deliberate language, a wide range of examples and time to practice using games such as memory match, dominoes and engage games and reflecting on what they have learnt it is hoped that explicit learning will help the children gain "number sense" and reinforce and develop mathematical language.    

The Importance of Language in Developing Mathematical Skills

 We sometimes are of the view that mathematics consists of numerals and symbols and therefore language is not important in learning mathematical thinking and counting.  These skills are called domain- specific skills and are skills that are rarely used outside of mathematical tasks.  As teachers we can help children become proficient in mathematical facts but to be able to solve problems there is another important aspect of mathematics needed - the role of basic language skills to support mathematical learning.

Young children first learn about quantity, size and comparisons.  As they play they sort and compare - Have I got more than my friend?  Is my apple bigger?  These skills do not need number but it does require language.  The beginning of maths is based on creating a connection between physical objects and the language to identify and understand the symbols we use for numerals.

When a child gets "stuck" or has difficulty learning to identify the connection between the symbol that represents a set of objects and the name we give it, we tend to look at the "domain" focused skills for answers.  But in fact it could be due to their language skills.  One may need to clarify and explain the vocabulary, use images and manipulatives and support students to understand words and symbols.

The connection between language and number symbols is key to understanding a number word problem.  Students often have difficulty knowing where to start.  They can pick out some numbers mentioned in the problem but if it doesn't specifically state what operation is needed to solve the problem they are stuck right at the beginning.

As I have children who are starting on their mathematical journey and are already finding difficulty in making connections between physical objects and numbers, I would like to help them develop a positive attitude towards mathematics because it connects to all parts of our lives.  It is not just memorising information but number patterns and problem solving.  Developing language skills to support mathematical learning will be my focus for my Inquiry this year.