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.

Making Oral language Engaging and Meaningful

To build oral language skills, children need opportunities to practice these skills in a supportive environment where they feel at ease.  The conversations need to be relevant and of interest to them so they can share their thoughts and opinions and actively listen to what others say and respond appropriately to what they hear.  They need to pay attention, ask questions and share their knowledge.

Peer learning is an important part of language development.  Children can learn much from each other when they work together, sharing opinions, expressing ideas fluently and coherently, exploring ideas and reach a consensus of opinion.  This helps a child build their own knowledge using vocabulary to describe what was possible and why and helps them learn to listen as well as to think.

Our Inquiry topic this term provided ideal opportunities to make oral language activities engaging and meaningful and to help children engage in their learning.  As a trip to the zoo was planned we based our focus question on making an enclosure for a zoo animal - Does my enclosure work for my animal?  The children had to think about the needs of the animal they had chosen - its diet, habitat, wellbeing, exercise and safety.  

 

Answering this question provided many opportunities for children to research and share information.  They worked in small groups and reported back to the class some of their findings.  In doing so they had to express their ideas fluently and coherently, participate in conversations, listen to other suggestions and justify their own ideas.  The sharing of information helped the children extend their vocabulary and understanding. 

This was a great opportunity for the children who are reluctant to share their ideas in a whole class situation to informally ask and answer questions, to discuss and explain what they have been doing as they interacted with their peers in smaller groups.   It helped those with more limited oral language to listen to others expressing their ideas and using language in a meaningful conversation.  They knew that all ideas were to be accepted and explored.  Knowledge was shared and connections made with their prior knowledge and they were to encourage each other,  and listen and respect others views.  They learnt new vocabulary and had the opportunity to practice it in a non judgemental group.

After the initial research about their animal the next step was to work collaboratively on planning, designing and building an enclosure.  They had to consider how will I make it?  What materials and tools will we use?   This required a lot of discussion to evaluate the design, to refine it and see if it could work.  What is the animals natural habitat like?  Can it play and exercise in it?  Does it keep the animal safe? It was exciting to hear the discussions and how inclusive the children were in their groups. 

During our visit to the zoo the children could be heard discussing and evaluating the different animal enclosures, observing, comparing and contrasting them to their own designs.  They were surprisingly accurate in their designs.  The language used showed how the activities had been meaningful and engaging and helped the children learn so much more about their chosen fact than that they live in the zoo.  They learnt how to work collaboratively, problem solved, made connections with their prior knowledge from their reading texts, encouraged others and practised their listening and speaking skills.  It was very encouraging to see how well the children engaged with each other.

         

Making Progress In Different Forms

 With the end of the term looming, I have been reviewing the oral language development of three children in my class that I have followed for my Inquiry this year.

Child A is still very interested in being social and communicating with others.  She is naturally outgoing, loves to chatter and is not put off by the fact that the children and I often find her English hard to follow.  Her hand is often the first to go up in class discussions and with help to reformulate her ideas and put them into more grammatically correct sentences she will repeat the sentence.  

When she gets excited she will repeat what she wants to say several times not realising that she has already said the same thing.  It is great to see her participation in retelling stories and trying to focus on class discussions.  She always has lots of ideas to write about and draws quite detailed pictures which she can orally discuss.     

She recognises emotions in others and she responds appropriately.  When discussing friends in our Inquiry topic Child A was able to describe what friendship looks like and feels like .  She still found it hard to talk about the playground picture and just said a few phrases about it despite prompting her to try to say more    

Child B continues to be a quiet member of the class but he too is finding the confidence to sometimes raise his hand during class discussions to offer a suggestion.  He, like his many of his classmates, is learning to put his thoughts into a sentence and to use more than a one word answer to a question. 

He finds maths discussions more easy to join in as he enjoys maths.  I ask the children to justify their answer, even if is a simple explanation that one number is bigger/ smaller than another and Child B is prepared to attempt to do so.

Child C has English as a second language but he made great progress with his oral language.  At the beginning of the year he was not a confident speaker and he liked to observe what was happening in the class.  He prefered to listen carefully to class discussions but not join in. Because he is such a focused learner he is now able to join in class discussions adding valued comments and information.

He is prepared to share his personal experiences and thoughts and justify them.  He is very good at retelling the sequence of a story to his reading group and remembering details.  His sentences are grammatically correct and he has begun to use longer and more complex sentences - person, action, object, time/place such as "In the weekend, I went to the beach with my family."  His grasp of grammar and phonemic awareness has helped him make very good progress with his reading and writing. 

These three children have come to school with a wide diversity of early language experiences.  Not only are they affected by their home language and early childhood experiences but their personalities, cultural expectations and their ability to hear or generate speech are all part of their oral language development.  It is up to us as teachers to make oral language activities engaging and meaningful in the classroom to help such children engage in their learning.

 

     

Learning How To Be A Friend

 A friend is someone that makes you feel special and that you like spending time with.  You can have fun with a friend - laugh and be cheered up by them, share and play with them.  Young children need opportunities to practice building friendship by learning the skills of turn taking, resolving conflicts and thinking about how their actions affect others.

Friends are also important for our mental health and happiness.  They provide comfort, prevent isolation, give a sense of belonging and build self esteem.  

Team one studied how to be a good friend this term.  As an assessment tool we looked at what friendship "looks" like, "sounds" like and "felt" like.  I thought these might be quite hard concepts for the children to grasp but the following are some of the points they made in their assessment discussions.

    "Looks like"

        *friends have a smile because they are happy together

        *they hold hands

        * they hug

        * they play nicely with each other

        * they are excited

        * they listen to each other

        * they are helpful and kind

        *they are excited to be with each other

        "Sounds" like

            * have kind voices

            * have a happy voice

            * use a quiet voice

            * laugh together

            * say nice things

            * use a calm voice

            * use an excited voice

            "Feels" like

            * happy being with a friend

            * not lonely

            * calm and kind

            * cheerful

            * grateful

            * sharing

            * always together

With all these wonderful sentiments shared, it shows the children are well aware of how to be a good friend and were able to express their feelings very well.