WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.480 Hello, and welcome to another episode of blooming curious. 00:00:03.480 --> 00:00:08.430 Today I want to talk about the power of explicit instruction. 00:00:08.490 --> 00:00:11.280 And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll 00:00:11.280 --> 00:00:16.650 know that I am a big fan of inquiry based learning, but you'll also 00:00:16.650 --> 00:00:23.250 know that I talk a lot about inquiry dovetailing with explicit instruction. 00:00:23.970 --> 00:00:29.160 As educators, we need a whole arsenal of strategies that we can 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:31.830 draw upon for given situations. 00:00:32.760 --> 00:00:36.180 Let's talk today about learning to read. 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:38.879 We want children to be curious. 00:00:38.879 --> 00:00:42.450 We want them to ask questions and we want them to be able to find 00:00:42.450 --> 00:00:44.489 the answers to those questions. 00:00:45.209 --> 00:00:48.000 And to be able to find the answers to those questions, 00:00:48.269 --> 00:00:50.700 they need to be able to read. 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:55.890 And if we want them to be able to read, which unlocks a whole world of knowledge 00:00:55.890 --> 00:01:01.890 and imagination, we need the correct tools and strategies to teach them to do that. 00:01:02.700 --> 00:01:07.350 Now for the longest time children have been failing to read because 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:09.300 of a whole language approach. 00:01:09.810 --> 00:01:13.770 There have been, and still are, people that think that children 00:01:13.800 --> 00:01:15.780 learn to read through osmosis. 00:01:16.440 --> 00:01:18.270 Through a whole language approach. 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:21.000 But science has proved them wrong. 00:01:21.690 --> 00:01:25.890 As humans we learn to talk from copying those around us. 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:29.429 But reading is not something that we do naturally. 00:01:29.729 --> 00:01:33.179 We learn to read by being taught to read. 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:39.899 To be taught, to read effectively, we need to learn how to decode the symbols and 00:01:39.899 --> 00:01:42.630 clusters of symbols that we see on a page. 00:01:42.929 --> 00:01:46.860 In other words, the graphemes or the letters of the alphabet. 00:01:47.610 --> 00:01:49.350 The science has been very clear. 00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:54.300 For children to learn, to read effectively, they need daily, 00:01:54.390 --> 00:01:57.690 systematic, explicit instruction. 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:03.150 And explicit instruction is telling kids exactly what they need to know. 00:02:03.570 --> 00:02:07.410 And then giving them opportunities to practice what they've just learned. 00:02:08.200 --> 00:02:09.400 Think about it this way. 00:02:10.090 --> 00:02:13.780 If you want to teach someone how to cook or bake you model 00:02:13.900 --> 00:02:15.460 and you show them the process 00:02:15.460 --> 00:02:16.540 step-by-step. 00:02:16.900 --> 00:02:21.760 You show them exactly how to accurately measure using measuring cups or a 00:02:21.790 --> 00:02:27.160 scale, and then you show them what it means to fold or to whip or to saute. 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:28.930 You don't just leave them to it. 00:02:28.930 --> 00:02:30.280 They don't know how to do that. 00:02:31.300 --> 00:02:36.070 Then they have a go and they repeat the process several times until 00:02:36.070 --> 00:02:41.560 it becomes automatic, until it becomes easy and natural for them. 00:02:42.220 --> 00:02:43.930 And it's the same with reading. 00:02:44.620 --> 00:02:47.230 We need to explicitly teach children 00:02:47.230 --> 00:02:54.280 the individual sounds in the language, the letter or the grapheme a, is a 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:57.640 symbol that represents the a sound. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.060 That two letters together, make one sound. 00:03:01.090 --> 00:03:02.200 It's like a diagraph. 00:03:02.230 --> 00:03:02.980 We call those. 00:03:03.310 --> 00:03:09.640 And when you see, for example, an -ay in a word, it represents an a sound. 00:03:10.150 --> 00:03:13.690 And along with that, you teach them the rule that -ay is 00:03:13.690 --> 00:03:15.430 always at the end of a word. 00:03:15.730 --> 00:03:20.520 So it helps them to decode the minute they see -ay they know ay. 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:24.610 Teaching children, the relationship between letters and their corresponding 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:27.100 sounds is what we call phonics. 00:03:27.730 --> 00:03:32.800 And it is essential that we teach phonics not only well, but systematically 00:03:32.830 --> 00:03:37.000 and daily, so that it becomes embedded and automatic for children. 00:03:37.540 --> 00:03:41.440 When they see that letter B, they should immediately know that the 00:03:41.440 --> 00:03:43.730 sound associated with that letter is b 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:49.570 Simultaneously, we need to develop children's phonemic awareness. 00:03:49.570 --> 00:03:55.060 And this is when children can identify and manipulate the sounds in words. 00:03:55.690 --> 00:03:59.859 To develop phonemic awareness, we provide and focus on activities where 00:03:59.920 --> 00:04:03.040 children can identify the sounds. 00:04:03.519 --> 00:04:09.640 Not the letters, but the sounds in words, So, for example, if you said the word dog. 00:04:10.030 --> 00:04:13.930 Then you might say, what sound do you hear at the beginning of the word dog? 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:19.570 And the child should respond with D. Then later on, you might say, what sound 00:04:19.570 --> 00:04:21.010 do you have at the end of the word? 00:04:21.130 --> 00:04:26.260 And the child should respond with g and later on, you might say, what sound 00:04:26.260 --> 00:04:27.940 do you hear in the middle of the word? 00:04:28.090 --> 00:04:32.860 And the child will say, o. Now when you play with those sounds. 00:04:33.340 --> 00:04:36.220 You'll do phoneme substitution and deletion. 00:04:36.670 --> 00:04:40.940 So you'll say if I take away the D in dog and I put a l 00:04:40.960 --> 00:04:43.390 instead, what do you hear then? 00:04:43.450 --> 00:04:45.310 And the child will say, log. 00:04:45.820 --> 00:04:48.280 Similarly you can play with end sounds. 00:04:48.280 --> 00:04:52.310 And if you say, if I take away that gut in dog and I put a 00:04:52.490 --> 00:04:54.190 t, what will the word be then? 00:04:54.190 --> 00:04:56.290 And the child will say dot. 00:04:57.100 --> 00:04:59.770 Phonemic awareness should start early. 00:05:00.700 --> 00:05:04.270 Simply by reading lots of rhymes to children, getting them to 00:05:04.270 --> 00:05:05.599 give you words that rhyme. 00:05:05.620 --> 00:05:08.230 So you could say, give me a word that rhymes with dog. 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:11.980 And they might say mog and that's perfectly acceptable because 00:05:11.980 --> 00:05:15.610 we're simply teaching them how to recognize the sounds in words. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:18.970 And when it comes to teaching phonemic awareness. 00:05:19.300 --> 00:05:23.410 They are many parts, but the place to start is with wordplay. 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:24.940 That's your rhyming, 00:05:25.180 --> 00:05:28.120 that's the sounds you hear in words, but you also want 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:29.860 children to understand syllables. 00:05:30.070 --> 00:05:33.340 Because that's going to be important later when they're learning 00:05:33.340 --> 00:05:35.560 to spell multi-syllabic words. 00:05:35.890 --> 00:05:38.200 Syllables or something that you do every day. 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:41.530 You just included for a few minutes every day. 00:05:41.800 --> 00:05:44.830 Or just accidentally in your day to day activities. 00:05:45.270 --> 00:05:49.289 You might say, clap the syllables for the word carpet or whatever the word is. 00:05:49.340 --> 00:05:54.679 I often used the children's names and then also words associated with whatever we're 00:05:54.679 --> 00:05:56.719 learning about in science for example. 00:05:57.469 --> 00:06:00.769 Then you focus on onset and rime that comes next, the breaking 00:06:00.769 --> 00:06:04.999 apart of syllables, and later on, on segmenting and blending. 00:06:05.569 --> 00:06:10.519 So in going back to the word, dog, once children can identify the individual 00:06:10.519 --> 00:06:15.349 sounds, or the individual phonemes, then you start putting them together. 00:06:15.679 --> 00:06:20.329 That's when you sound out d-o-g, and they blend those sounds 00:06:20.329 --> 00:06:22.369 together and you hear dog. 00:06:23.149 --> 00:06:24.529 And you're still not writing. 00:06:24.589 --> 00:06:28.189 You're still doing your pre-writing skills and you're developing 00:06:28.189 --> 00:06:29.539 their fine motor skills. 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:33.049 And you're developing their pencil grip and you're giving them lots of 00:06:33.049 --> 00:06:37.429 activities that build those muscles, including gross motor activities. 00:06:37.909 --> 00:06:41.929 But you're still just playing and recognizing sounds. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:44.029 You can use magnetic letters. 00:06:44.059 --> 00:06:45.589 You can use sound dominoes. 00:06:45.589 --> 00:06:49.369 You can play games where you fish out pictures that start with 00:06:49.369 --> 00:06:53.539 a f sound for example, or you match pictures, two letters that 00:06:53.539 --> 00:06:55.189 represent the beginning sounds. 00:06:55.489 --> 00:06:59.179 This is what we call intentional playful learning. 00:06:59.829 --> 00:07:03.699 Where you're set up activities that are play-based and have a purpose of 00:07:03.699 --> 00:07:07.509 teaching the child, something in this case, letter or sound recognition. 00:07:08.109 --> 00:07:14.169 But it's important to remember that these play experiences come after 00:07:14.259 --> 00:07:16.689 you've explicitly taught your phonics. 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:20.739 So explicit teaching means that I do, we do, you do model. 00:07:21.129 --> 00:07:22.509 So first you teach them 00:07:22.509 --> 00:07:26.049 that, when you see this letter and you hold up the letter D 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:28.989 for example, it makes a d sound. 00:07:29.329 --> 00:07:32.569 Then you might use flashcards and altogether the children 00:07:32.569 --> 00:07:36.530 repeat the sounds and then they practice the sound on their own. 00:07:36.799 --> 00:07:40.369 Perhaps they'll draw three things that start with a D sound. 00:07:40.789 --> 00:07:45.469 And if they feel like having a go at sounding out a word of their drawing 00:07:45.769 --> 00:07:49.249 and writing it, they can otherwise they just tell you what the picture is 00:07:49.249 --> 00:07:54.229 that they've drawn, and you write it, but as you write it, you model and you 00:07:54.229 --> 00:07:58.669 sound out each individual letter so that they start to see how these things 00:07:58.669 --> 00:08:03.859 work and they start to make connections between writing and letters and sounds. 00:08:04.489 --> 00:08:07.639 Now I use flashcards, which included the letter name. 00:08:08.810 --> 00:08:14.330 Like a D for example, it's sound d, and an associated movement. 00:08:14.849 --> 00:08:18.539 And often I would see children writing and sounding out words and you'll 00:08:18.539 --> 00:08:22.739 see them doing the action because that helped them remember the sound. 00:08:23.129 --> 00:08:27.449 These phonics lessons were quick 10 to 15 minutes, max. 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:35.249 But they take place every single day and they will also at pace, not 00:08:35.249 --> 00:08:39.749 slow, at pace because that ensures that there is no time for boredom. 00:08:40.109 --> 00:08:41.009 They were quick. 00:08:41.189 --> 00:08:42.689 So keep me to, to focus. 00:08:42.959 --> 00:08:47.009 And then after that, you will have activities in small groups that children 00:08:47.040 --> 00:08:51.839 rotate through over the week that gave him opportunities to practice identifying 00:08:51.839 --> 00:08:53.879 and manipulating the sounds in words. 00:08:54.479 --> 00:08:58.050 And once children's started writing, then you would get out a little 00:08:58.170 --> 00:09:02.219 mini, white boards and children can practice as part of the phonics lesson, 00:09:02.489 --> 00:09:03.930 that's the, we do part. 00:09:04.349 --> 00:09:08.369 So that's where I would say the word dog and they would write it down. 00:09:08.489 --> 00:09:11.769 But I wouldn't just say dog, I'd say d-o-g. 00:09:12.300 --> 00:09:12.629 Or. 00:09:13.349 --> 00:09:14.849 Eventually just dog. 00:09:15.119 --> 00:09:16.290 And they would write it down. 00:09:16.560 --> 00:09:19.800 And this is a powerful approach because you can see straight away 00:09:19.949 --> 00:09:23.430 who were successful and who still needed more help and practice. 00:09:23.430 --> 00:09:28.829 And after that phonics lesson, you pull out those kids that you saw needed more 00:09:28.829 --> 00:09:32.849 help and you give them some more explicit instruction and more time to practice. 00:09:33.660 --> 00:09:39.900 Children, are successful readers when they have strong phonological awareness and are 00:09:39.900 --> 00:09:42.089 able to manipulate the sounds in words. 00:09:42.389 --> 00:09:46.829 And by the way, when children can do this, they can even read nonsense 00:09:46.829 --> 00:09:50.310 words, which essentially means that once they have these skills, 00:09:50.609 --> 00:09:52.709 they can read any word provided 00:09:52.709 --> 00:09:55.349 they've been taught all the letter sound combinations. 00:09:55.990 --> 00:10:00.010 As early childhood teachers, our responsibility is to ensure that 00:10:00.010 --> 00:10:06.220 children leave our classroom with these foundations well established, so that we 00:10:06.220 --> 00:10:11.920 can open up a world of exploration and imagination to children, because once we 00:10:11.920 --> 00:10:16.300 give them the gift of reading, then you also give them the gift of independence. 00:10:16.570 --> 00:10:20.530 And that's when they are able to use the skills of reading and comprehension, 00:10:20.800 --> 00:10:25.390 to go off and read about things that interest them and eventually participate 00:10:25.420 --> 00:10:27.610 in inquiry and project based learning. 00:10:28.330 --> 00:10:32.170 And this is why I say that inquiry and explicit instruction 00:10:32.260 --> 00:10:34.000 dovetail with one another. 00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:37.000 We need both strategies in our classrooms. 00:10:37.420 --> 00:10:40.420 Explicit instruction to teach them what they don't know. 00:10:40.900 --> 00:10:44.710 And give them the tools and strategies that they need to be able to read 00:10:44.710 --> 00:10:46.630 and solve mathematical equations. 00:10:47.050 --> 00:10:52.240 But then we simultaneously need to get them curious and interested in learning 00:10:52.450 --> 00:10:55.000 by marrying these two strategies together. 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:58.570 We give children the best chance to succeed. 00:10:58.780 --> 00:11:00.790 Not only at school, but in life. 00:11:01.330 --> 00:11:03.280 Now I have created a resource for you. 00:11:03.760 --> 00:11:08.500 That shows you in a step-by-step way, how to integrate inquiry 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:09.850 into existing lessons. 00:11:10.130 --> 00:11:13.160 You can get that at resources dot blooming, curious.com 00:11:13.160 --> 00:11:14.689 forward slash inquiry. 00:11:14.780 --> 00:11:16.010 Underscore 1 0 1. 00:11:16.790 --> 00:11:23.610 And I've written a blog post in two parts on how to teach a child to read. 00:11:24.060 --> 00:11:26.760 I will in both of these, in the show notes for you. 00:11:27.450 --> 00:11:33.180 So if you want to know how to effectively and explicitly teach a child to read and 00:11:33.180 --> 00:11:37.650 be curious and love learning, you need to do three things when this episode 00:11:37.680 --> 00:11:39.510 ends, which is in less than a minute. 00:11:40.260 --> 00:11:44.190 One is read the blog posts, which I have written in detail, breaking 00:11:44.190 --> 00:11:48.510 down the process very easily for you, of how a child learns to read. 00:11:49.140 --> 00:11:49.740 Two. 00:11:50.160 --> 00:11:54.780 I also would like to draw your attention to a fantastic book called Explicit 00:11:54.810 --> 00:11:58.370 Direct Instruction: The Power of a Well-crafted Well Taught Lesson. 00:11:58.760 --> 00:12:02.190 It's by Hollingworth and Ybarra, and that is in my shop. 00:12:02.220 --> 00:12:04.620 And I'll leave a link to that in the show notes too. 00:12:05.100 --> 00:12:08.670 And lastly, get my free e-guide that shows you how to integrate 00:12:08.670 --> 00:12:10.710 inquiry into your existing lessons. 00:12:11.010 --> 00:12:14.100 I leave all three of these links for you in the show notes. 00:12:14.580 --> 00:12:18.630 Thanks for choosing blooming, curious to listen to today, and if you enjoyed 00:12:18.630 --> 00:12:21.960 this episode, I'd love you to spread the word, just click on the share 00:12:21.960 --> 00:12:23.730 button and send it to someone, you know. 00:12:24.420 --> 00:12:28.380 And make sure you subscribe so that you're notified when a new episode 00:12:28.380 --> 00:12:32.670 is published and until next week, take care and stay blooming curious..