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News from AVKO Educational Research Foundation

Don McCabe <donmccabe1@gmail.com> Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 3:07 PM
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In This Issue November: The Month of Reading Pleasure

by Gloria Goldsmith
Nat'l Child. Book The whole month of November is really full of reading
Week celebration and awareness. I have to admit some of my most
perfect days have been sitting curled up in a chair with a
Book of the Month
book. Some authors can send us to places we have never
Mini Lesson: seen, yet can imagine so vividly! I really know a book has
Teaching the my attention when I read slower than normal because I don't
Patterns... want the pleasure of reading about the characters to end.
The last book I read, I thought about the characters for days
Reading Tips afterward. Now that's pleasure!

Focus On
Reading
Book of the Month: Readings for Fluency
By Gloria Goldsmith
readers This book is for any student who
RFF
does not read fluently or with little or no
expression, even if the student reads at
grade level.
It targets the little words (such as
how and who) that tend to be confused.
For a student to read fluently, these
words must become automatic. This
book purposefully uses many types of
November fonts including a handwriting font and all
capitals in order to improve the decoding
01 National skills of many students who have difficult identifying letters
Family Literacy Day when the letter looks slightly altered in size or shape from
the font they are used to seeing.
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08-14, National To make the learning easier, the readings are in paired
Children's Book Week sentences. The tutor reads a sentence (often a question)
and then the student reads the next.
17, National Young Set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes. Don't feel obligated
Reader's Day to read the entire page. If you can, fine. If you read it twice
in fifteen minutes, that's great. You can switch to having the
READ! student read the question and you read the answer. Model
what you want the student to do: read with enthusiasm and
Quick Links punctuation. The voice drops down on periods and up on
questions.
Readings for Fluency Don't waste learning times by having your student sit and
try to sound out a word. Count to two, if necessary, and
AVKO Membership then give them the word. Be sure to encourage and praise
your student when they have accomplished today what they
Coming Up... couldn't do yesterday. Give as much help as needed each
Don McCabe time. They will learn.

Radio Interviews
Watch for special e- Mini Lesson:Teaching the Patterns
mails -ical vs. -cial & -tial vs. -tail
By Don McCabe, Research Director
Walt Shaw Show

Bob Gouley Show When students memorize words letter by letter, it's
easy for them to transpose a letter. Just think about all
the wrong telephone numbers we have dialed just
What To Do For because we misdialed the last four digits 4728 as 7428.
Nat'l Children's If we concentrate on teaching the patterns, our
Book Week students will rarely transpose the -ci as -ic or the -ia
as -ai. One good way of teaching the patterns is by
kids reading word groupings using the Sequential Spelling technique.
We can show regular words that end -ic. Note that
the /ik/ sound in words that have a one syllable base is
always spelled -ick as in pick and nick. However if the
base word cannot be reduced to one meaningful syllable
then the letter k disappears as in picnic.
Comic becomes comical; topic, topical; tropic,
1. Join with other tropical; practic(e), practical; medic, medical; cubic,
families and have a cubical; magic, magical; ethic, ethical; cleric, clerical;
"BookExchange". politic, political; historic, historical; electric, electrical;
Everyone brings a metric, metrical; geometric, geometrical; music,
book or five they musical; classic, classical; tactic, tactical; critic,
would like to trade critical; optic, optical; skeptic, skeptical; statistic,
with another statistical, etc.
reader, Set them all We can point out that in English the /sh/ sound is
out and have a never spelled sh in words whose base has more than
great time one syllable. The word Washington has the one
browsing and meaningful syllable base of wash. Fisherman has the
choosing. one meaningful syllable of fish. But words such as
social, crucial, special. racial, glacial, judicial,
2. Have a Kid's prejudicial, official, sacrificial, artificial, superficial,
Book's Flea Market financial, and commercial cannot be reduced to one
and sell your old meaningful syllable.
books. Take the Almost every book that teaches reading and/or
money to a used spelling will teach the letter combination
book store and find -tion as /shun/ but we have yet to find one that
some new (to you) explains that the letters -ti has the /sh/ sound and the
ones. letters -on has the /un/ sound when a word cannot be
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7/31/2010 Gmail - News
letters from
on has AVKO
the /un/Educational
sound when… a word cannot be
reduced to one meaningful syllable. Nor have we found
3. Call your local a phonics book (other than AVKO's) that specifically
Library, see what teaches the -tial and -cial as being /shul/.
they are planning Confide, confident, confidential; reside, resident,
for National Child- residential; preside, president, presidential; essence,
ren's Book Week essential, essentially; part, partial, partially, impartial;
and attend. Check differ, different, differential; Prudence, prudent,
out books prudential; credit, credence, credentials; circumstance,
while there! circumstantial; substance, substantial; infer, inference,
inferential; sequence, sequential; Celeste, celestial,
4. Start a Kid's Book etc.
Club. Invite your The letter combination -tail has the -ail pattern as
friends to bring and in retail, entail, detail, curtail, fishtail, cocktail, shirttail,
discuss their most pigtail, fantail, dovetail, hightail, etc.
recent book read.
Discuss what they
liked or disliked Reading Tips
about it and how
they would rate it. from the National Center for Family Literacy
(All time favorite,
National Family Literacy Day was November 1. But every
Really Good,
Moderately Good, A day is a good day to read with your family! Here are some
Snooze) Be sure to tips to help improve reading skills from NCFL.
have some snacks: Reading is a skill that gets better with practice. Make
anything simple. reading fun. It is not all about drill.
Meet once a month. Encourage reading everywhere! Have your child read
street signs and T-shirts. Get him to help with cooking
Book Look (reading recipes, labels and shopping lists). Have your child
keep track of family activities on a calendar.
The Children's Book Give your child choices in what he reads. Magazines are
Council has a nice list appealing. They have short articles with colorful pictures.
of books to check, Poems are another great way to motivate. They are short
from young readers and give the child a sense of accomplishment when read.
through eighth grade. Set reading goals. Reward reading with incentives of
importance to your child. Learn what interests your child and
Alibris has lots of connect that to reading. Is there a museum near your home
used and new books that would be of interest? Read about famous athletes in a
for kids listed under favorite sport or a favorite movie.
Juvenal Literature. Read everyday as a family. Make learning new words fun.
The more words a reader knows, the more he comprehends
what he reads or hears. Have conversations about
interesting words. Give your child a "kid-friendly" definition
and then use the word in conversation.
Help your child write a letter to a grandparent, family
friend or pen pal.
Show your child reading is important in your life. Be sure
your child sees you enjoying reading for pleasure.

Readings for Fluency -

Save For any student who does not read fluently or with little or no expression, even if the
student reads at grade level. It targets the little words (such as how and who) that
tend to be confused. For a student to read fluently, these words must become
33% automatic. Members $10., Non-Members $11.20

Offer Expires: December 01, 2009

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