On Your Way with Dr. Christina Williams

When I was teaching second grade, one of my students said, “Dr. Williams, last year we sang this song, and I want our class to sign it too.” Boy, am I glad I listened to him! That song was such a powerful tool to end our days together. It’s sung to the tune of “London Bridge is Falling Down” and it goes: What did you learn in school today? School today. School today. What did you learn in school today? Tell us, _Easton_. (You name a person in the group.)    My promise to my students was that every single day they came into our classroom they would learn something they didn’t already know. Singing that song at the end of the day reminded kids of what, exactly, they did learn. It could be that cred means believe. It could be that o-o can say /ew/ or /oo/. It could be that Our neighbors to the north of the United States are Canadians or students could even say something like, “Nick is a great reading partner.” Anything goes here! When we sang that song, I had real hope that when my students got home and were asked, “What’d you learn in school today?” instead of mumbling “Nuthin’,” my students would have a great response ready.  I also sent home a newsletter at least once a month. In that newsletter, I shared what our focuses were for each subject area, and I often challenged parents to ask their children to perform a task so they could see what their kids been learning. Sometimes I said, “Ask your child to sing the short vowel song I taught them.” Sometimes it was, “Ask your child to draw a compass rose with the cardinal directions.” Sometimes it was “Ask your child to teach you the nines trick for multiplication.” This review is quite powerful, because everyone’s impressed! Kids are inspired to learn and grow when it’s acknowledged. OYW with Dr. Christina Williams

Morphology is the study of forms of words. Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning within words. That dinky little s at the end of the word dogs is a morpheme because it demonstrates that there is more than one dog. It does not simply represent the sound /s/. That s holds meaning. Words can, literally, morph into other forms with the addition (or deletion) of letters and letter combinations that hold meaning.In the word sing, that i-n-g is just--part of the word. Sing is a free morpheme because it holds meaning standing on its own. On Your Way with Dr. Christina Williams

Comparing words can be an effective way to focus attention on subtle differences in word meanings. Even words we use often can be nuanced in ways we don’t fully recognize until we compare and/or contrast them with other words having similar meanings.In this podcast, we’re going to explore a variety of ways to compare word meanings in such a way that (hopefully) inspires us to closely consider our word choices as we express our thoughts with others in speech and in print.I’ll begin by sharing how you can use semantic gradients with kids. In educational settings, we often call this an exploration of “shades of meaning.” We’ll be considering word meanings and word relationships while placing them on a gradient. We’ll begin with our initial thoughts about word meanings, but a dictionary or dictionary app will be called upon to firm up our thinking.This work is very well suited for examining adjectives, or describing words, which are quite useful in everyday linguistic tasks. We’ll discover what we know while also nudging our kids toward using more sophisticated words and to strive to more accurately convey what they are trying to say. On Your Way Podcast, Dr. Christina Williams

Yes! Today we’re going to talk about employing a Dynamic Dictionary in your teaching space. If you are writing with kids, a dynamic dictionary may be just what you’ve been looking for to move your students from using “safe, easy-to-spell, dime-a-dozen words” to using more sophisticated vocabulary words that better convey what your writers are trying to say.In part one of this mini-series, we discussed how to meaningfully incorporate teacher selected vocabulary words into our daily instruction. With the Dynamic Dictionary, we are also encouraging students to contribute their own words into our classroom vocabulary instruction.On Your Way Podcast Dr. Christina Williams

This episode takes Dynamic Dictionary one step further.  Listen to this to solidify your understanding of the Dynamic Dictionary Podcast. 

Vocabulary Explicit Call and Response InstructionIn this episode, Dr. Christy explains why it is so important to have Vocabulary Explicit Call and Response instruction in your classroom.  She gives you step by step instructions on how to implement Vocubulary Instruction. 

Conferencing Notes Blank Most teachers, without even thinking much about it, require early elementary students to read anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes a day for “homework." But is that good practice? Dr. Christina Williams shares why teachers should not require families to read at home for homework. When families read because a teacher assigns it, it makes the reading a drudgery—a task we do because we have to—not because we want to. And we never want parents set timers on reading. That’s not something readers do, is it?More importantly, when kids are not yet equipped to decode most every word on the pages of the books they’re “reading,” we set them up for reading difficulties. Listen to this week’s episode to learn why we should not be requiring reading each night as an ongoing homework assignment. 

Every parent in my school community knows about sight words. They may be called star words, snap words, or something else, but we know what they are. Early childhood classrooms feature from 25 to more than 100 words students must know on sight by the end of the school year. That\'s not a problem-the fluent reading of words. The problem can be in how those words are taught.Does your child say the when the word is and? How about and for the word said? In my first grade classroom, at the beginning of the year, this happens quite frequently. I call it the \"Guess and Go\" syndrome. I believe this kind of reading error is a result of children being taught sight words. They are taught to recall how words look. They are not taught to make the sounds they see, from left to right, across the word. If they had been taught to make the sounds they see, children would not say see when they come to the word look.Teachers often post the students\' sight words on the walls of their classrooms. They review each word frequently. The children are asked to practice using the words in various ways. Eventually, the word sticks in the memories of the students. If it doesn\'t stick quickly enough, parents are asked to make flashcards for the words to review them with their children.Here\'s the problem: When taught to rely on their memory of how words look, children are prone to make errors in their reading.So what do I recommend?I believe that we must return to the Sound by Sound approach (left to right) and reserve the Sight Word approach (memorizing words) for the words that do not follow phonics guidelines. Even the words I call \"true sight words\" have the expected initial sounds.

Reading to your kids is so very important. Even with high stakes tests hanging over my shoulders, as a classroom teacher I invest the time to read aloud to my students every single day because I believe that it is the best way to promote a love for books*. But reading aloud offers so much more!It’s a perfect time to:discuss unfamiliar words ~vocabularyshare/compare what you’re imagining in your minds ~comprehensiondemonstrate reading with a pace that matches what the author’s saying (sometimes we speed up, sometimes we slow down) ~fluency/prosodydemonstrate interpretations of the voices of characters (anger, southern twang, squeaky, etc.) ~fluency/prosodycompare the events of this story to other stories you know or to your own lives ~comprehensionintroduce a variety of genres to expand your children’s experiences with books and how they work ~comprehensionpromote the character traits you’d like to see in yourself and others ~comprehensionIn the classroom, I continually say things like, “Whoa. You are acting determined just like little Willy in Stone Fox, “ or “You can write in your journal the way Sam Beaver wrote in his in The Trumpet of the Swan.”Remember, your kids are capable of comprehending books far beyond their reading levels. When you’re reading to them, they are able to do the deep work of comprehension without having to slow down to decode unfamiliar words.One more thing . . . Once I read a book to students, they are often excited to read it themselves. That’s WONDERFUL! They know what’s going happen, so they’re better equipped to tackle what might otherwise be challenging words for them. If it’s a quality book, reading it twice will be a great investmentSo, have I convinced you?

Today, in the Science of Reading community, lots of teachers are questioning how to most effectively equip children to become skilled writers. We’ve been learning a lot about the essentials when teaching kids to read, and now teachers are wondering about what scientific research says when it comes to early childhood writing instruction. Many schools had adopted “the writers’ workshop approach” a while back, but since the Lucy Calkins curriculum for reading has been eschewed (UH-SHOOED) and explicit systematic phonics instruction has (finally!) taken its rightful place in beginning readers’ classrooms, teachers are wondering about what to do with writing time. Should there be time set aside for explicit writing instruction? If so, what are “writing blocks” supposed to look like? Some folks, like Natalie Wexler (one of my heroes) say that teaching writing separate from knowledge-based content is not a worthy time spend. Others, like Tim Shanahan (also one of my heroes) feel that about 20% of literacy instruction time (25-45 minutes or so) should be set aside, daily, for explicit writing instruction. What’s a teacher to do when the experts can’t agree?