Is "Calendar Time" a Thing of the Past?

One of my most favorite parts of teaching Kindergarten and first grade is Calendar Time.  It's a wonderful way to start the day with routine, a good time to review math skills, and go over the day's schedule. As a first grade teacher ten years ago, I prided myself on my calendar bulletin board.  It was all-inclusive; covering topics from the days of the week to the changing seasons to classroom jobs and everything in between.  It was expansive; filling an entire bulletin board! Above all, it was cute, color-coordinated and trendy. (Of course!) I loved that board and the time my students and I would spend every morning reviewing concepts, sharing, and prepping for the day ahead.

When I returned to the classroom from an intervention position to teach Kindergarten a few years ago I set up the board of all boards! I bought new date cards, learned new songs, created streamlined flip charts, added Velcro to my money chart, and re-bundled my straws for the tens/ones chart. I was determined to make my Calendar Time awesome! I just KNEW my students would LOVE it as much as I did!

BUT, I was SO disappointed!! 

My students weren't engaged, weren't singing/playing along, and (worst of all) weren't learning! 

I was stumped! What was keeping them from engaging? 

In my few short years out of the classroom had Calendar Time become obsolete?!?

Calendar Time in the 21st Century

I knew my techniques, activities, routines were good. I consulted other teachers, read books and articles on the topic and came to only one conclusion...

Calendar Time was the SAME, but my students were DIFFERENT! 

They engaged through technology and the lessons I planned that incorporated my SMART Board were quickly becoming their favorites (and my most successful). I knew there had to be a way to

  bring my beloved Calendar Time into the 21st Century. 

I searched for a program or product that would accomplish what I wanted, but there wasn't much out there. So, I started from scratch and created my first (very primitive) calendar file for the SMART Board. Once I saw how engaged my students were (with the same concepts I was trying to teach using my old-fashioned bulletin board, mind you)... I kicked my creative juices into overdrive, abandoned my bulletin board calendar, and NEVER LOOKED BACK!

I read recently that Calendar Time is a thing of the past and that it is among a list of "Old School" practices that should be stopped... Well, I couldn't disagree more! Since switching to an interactive, SMART Board version I found that my Calendar Time has become even more vital than before! Read all about why calendar is still essential today HERE!

My students learn SO MUCH MORE than the days of the week during Calendar Time now...

They learn calendar basics, weather and season characteristics, celebrate birthdays, and cheer every Friday!

They learn basic math skills and cover standards involving counting, base ten concepts, and graphing!

They learn to use technology to demonstrate what they know and interact with new content!

They work as teams to problem solve, use discussion to explain and communicate, encourage each other through collaboration, and develop leadership skills as they take their turn as calendar leader!

Head over to this post to learn all about why classroom calendars for the 21st Century are different, but still just as important as traditional calendars!

Do we still need calendar time in the 21st Century? YES!

Are you ready to improve YOUR calendar time? 

Then I'm here to help!

Sign up with 21st Century K to grab this FREE workbook and lots of other great content!

Click to sign up for this guide!

Interested in how I used my SMART Board to bring Calendar Time out of the dark ages?
Check out my YouTube Demonstration Video!

Then download my SMART Calendar FREEBIE and try it for yourself! Your Kindergarten and First Grade students will thank you!

Interactive Calendar for SMART Board

Do you teach calendar in your primary classroom? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below!

I HATE SIGHT WORDS!

There are SOOO many resources "out there" for teaching sight words, SOOO many lists, and SOOO many opinions on the matter that I thought I would add my thoughts to the mix...

And I HATE them!

There. I said it once and for all. I hate sight words. I mean, they break all the rules, they are easily confused, and they are a pain to assess and keep organized! As a teacher I hate feeling like a failure when we go over and over words like "the" and "what" and "said" and many of my Kinders or struggling readers still don't know them.  As a parent I feel pressure to suffer my own children through flashcards and list reviews just to be able to compete with other kids or earn a reward for finishing a set of words. As an interventionist I hate that my hard-working students' reading abilities are judged by the number of words they can call in isolation.

I'll bet you have felt some of those same things, but just didn't say them "out loud." So, if that's the case, then why oh why do we devote so much time and energy into teaching sight words?!?

Or maybe you think I'm crazy and you LOVE sight words?!? 

There are certainly many schools of thought on the matter.

Those who love sight words may believe some of the following:

• Sight words are not decodable there for the only strategy for reading them is to memorize them.
• Sight words (or more specifically high frequency words) account for more than 50% of printed material.
• Knowing sight words with automaticity quickly improves reading rate and fluency.

I concede that these are all very good points and there must be a place for sight word instruction in our literacy curriculum. But, I oppose the notion that sight words must be learned in a rote manner and must be acquired at a mind-boggling pace in Kindergarten and First Grade. So, I present 

5. We are missing the bigger picture! When we emphasize memorization of whole words we tend to neglect the idea that words are made up of smaller sounds (or phonemes).  Young readers need to understand that words are  made of parts and when they know lots of parts they can figure out lots of words (without having to memorize them all).
4. We are unfairly judging our students. There are lots of ways to solve words and memorizing them is only one way.  If we classify, rank, or even reward our students for memorizing lists of words and equate quantity of memorized words to reading ability we are being very unfair. What about all the other ways readers solve words?!? Words can be solved through phonics, context clues, picture cues, and a strong grasp of oral language.
3. We are putting undo pressure on everyone!  The idea that Kindergarten students need to know X-number of sight words just causes stress.  Teachers, parents, and students should not feel stress or pressure to memorize words at a young age. That often just results in a lot of frustration for everyone that, if we really think about it, is unnecessary.
2. We are wasting too much time! It's hard to make time for sight word assessments because they take so long, they have to be completed one-on-one, and there are always a few words that need to be rechecked. We could probably find a much better use of our instructional time if we really stopped and prioritized.
1. We are instilling in our children that they have to "KNOW" all the words.  Nothing makes me more sad than for a struggling reader to tell me, "I can't read that story because I don't know all the words." Kids are perceptive.  When we pull them aside or send them in the hall over and over to review lists upon lists of isolated words... they know when they aren't "getting them" and they begin to believe that that CAN'T read because they haven't memorized the words.  They internalize this idea and think that reading is just memorizing... and they couldn't be more WRONG!

Have you joined me yet? 

Do you hate sight words, too? 

Are you still not convinced?

Either way, I'm issuing a challenge to reading teachers. As you are planning your next bit of literacy instruction replace time spent on sight word flash cards, sight word list reviews, and sight word assessments with... Reading! Beginning readers need to be paired with actual books that are on their level.  Books for early readers are rich in sight words and typically have patterned text.  Through repeated interactions with these texts students will vicariously learn sight words because they will be faced with them often.  But, instead of memorizing them in isolation, students will begin to recognize them in-context while reading and making meaning.  Learning words in this way will result in faster acceleration through reading levels and a more firm grasp of the words as they are encountered in a variety of ways. Students will be much more confident in themselves as a reader because they are learning through the act of reading.  Students will also realize that good reading means solving words using lots of strategies... not just memorizing them all.

After putting a stronger emphasis on and spending more time actually reading and less time memorizing words for awhile... Go ahead... assess your students using a list of sight words and I'll just bet that you will find your students (especially the struggling ones) know more of those pesky words with an even faster recall. Imagine that! *Wink, wink!

Be sure to check out my other posts on how becoming a reading interventionist completely changed my views on reading development and instruction!

    

3 Reasons Phonological Awareness is KEY

As a Kindergarten teacher I knew

Phonological Awareness to be the cornerstone to beginning reading skills.  As an interventionist I have learned WHY that is so.

First - What is phonological awareness?

Phonological Awareness is the understanding that words are made up of sounds and that those sounds can be manipulated (separated, changed, isolated, etc.)  Phonological Awareness IS NOT Phonics.  Phonics is the understanding that those sounds can be associated with printed letters.

An easy way to remember the difference is that Phonological Awareness can be taught in the dark.  It only requires listening for and producing words and sounds. Phonics cannot be learned in the dark because it addresses letters. BUT, Phonics cannot be learned without an understanding of Phonological Awareness. (More on Phonics Later!)

A sub-skill of phonological awareness is Phonemic Awareness. This is the understanding that words are made of a group of individual phonemes (or sounds).

Research shows that students can master Phonemic Awareness skills in about 20 hours of instruction and practice.  It is very important to provide opportunities for practice with each level on the phonological awareness continuum during the primary grades.

Second - Why is Phonological Awareness so important?

Phonemic Awareness in particular has implications not only in reading, but also in writing.  Once a child can articulate each sound in a word, he or she is ready to assign a letter (or letters) to those sounds in order to spell and write (that's where Phonics comes into play). Likewise, students who can segment words better understand how to blend sounds when reading.

For some students hearing the separation between phonemes (sounds) is very difficult. Delays in speech or hearing development can significantly complicate the process and they may need extra practice with the skill of articulation. HOWEVER, firming Phonemic Awareness skills is crucial to success in reading and writing.

Third - How can we teach Phonemic Awareness?

There are many different ways to practice phonemic segmentation with students, but one tried and true way is through the use of Elkonin boxes. To use these boxes students segment and push chips into a box as they say each sound.

I created these Elkonin boxes for my struggling Kindergarteners. After drawing the boxes, I added a pipe cleaner before laminating. The action of "pushing sounds" over the little bump was all it took to help them "feel" the breaks.
Watch as my daughter tries it out!

Here's a few other fun ways to practice phonemic segmentation!
Karate Chop Each Sound
Ride a Roller Coaster and go up/downhill on the middle sounds
Count sounds on fingers
Clap or tap sounds on desk/lap
Use exercises like toe touches or jumping jacks to physically move with each sound.

Phonological Awareness is KEY in literacy development because...

1. It provides students with a basic understanding of how words work before they begin to actually read and write.

2. When they understand that words can be manipulated, students begin to realize that words are made up of individual sounds in a specific order.

3. When students understand that words are made up of individual sounds and then "chunks" of sound they are ready to assign letters to those sounds.  This is writing! (And students are ready to learn to write while simultaneously learning to read! More on that later.)

Now watch as Leah segments and then assigns letters to each sound using her boxes.

ALL young students need practice with phonolgical awareness and it's a skill ALL students can and should master by second grade.
If you are looking for a way to add more practice with literacy skills into your school day and you have a Smart Board, then check out my monthly Literacy Practice files over at TpT!
(Files also sold separately here!)