EDUC 681

Emergent Literacy
Artifact Description
The attached artifact is a collection of lessons designed for PK-3 students. I designed
these lessons for particular students or groups of students. My target students
literacy development ranges from early to fluent. The voice mapping activity is one I
planned to help a third grader who reads with a very robotic voice. Doing Words
(Johnson, 1987) is a strategy Ive used with preschool through second graders. This
lesson is an adaptation of Johnsons approach to teaching reading and writing that I
have found to be a very effective way of differentiating in any primary classroom. I
planned the oral language lesson as a way to introduce myself to my students at
the beginning of the year and to assess their literary and language skills. Word
study should be present in every language lesson, regardless of developmental
levels, but I chose to focus on an early writing skill such as naming and writing with
nouns. Since many of my students are early readers just beginning to learn about
story elements and structure, I also planned a very basic introduction to character
mapping.
Professional Growth
Prior to being hired as a Title 1 teacher, I had 8 years of experience teaching in
primary grade classrooms PK-2. Once I started working with students in grades K-8, I
needed to expand my knowledge of comprehension strategies for developing and
fluent readers and had to learn to adapt my instruction of emergent skills to older
students who are too mature for strategies such as Benjamin Bunny and Dabble
Duck.
Doing Words is my favorite strategy for teaching reading and I had used it with first
and second grade classes for many years, adapting it to each new group of readers
and writers. When I began as a Title 1 teacher, my mentors urged me to use the
Barton Reading and Spelling System. That year I learned a lot about Barton, which
was the best intervention strategy for some students. But without Doing Words
with my young charges, I felt like a pen without papera classroom without
students--a teacher without a lesson plan. It just didnt feel right.
During this course I reviewed the process of doing a running record and began to
use the miscue analysis, which I had often neglected. Paying attention to the type of
errors my students make has been helpful in planning instruction. After one year in
the Title classroom but without a 316 license I knew I needed more focused training.
This course helped me gain confidence in my experience with early and emergent
readers and helped me develop more strategies for working with developing and
fluent readers who need to work on comprehension skills. Then I took this course
and realized that best practices in a Title 1 room arent necessarily different from
those in a classroom. The fact that these students were struggling and needed
intervention only meant they needed Katie Johnsons approach even more.

After this course I used all of the differentiated lessons except the noun mapping
activity with my title students. The voice mapping worked well, doing words was a
success but it did cut into my guided reading time, and my students enjoyed
learning about me through books. I never did assign them the task of bringing in
their important books but I plan to use it as a culminating project for the end of
this school year. In addition to books from home, their end-of-year collection could
include books they have read throughout the year in class or independently.
Student Impact
The voice mapping lesson worked beautifully with the monotone third grader for
whom I designed the lesson. After modeling and mapping my own reading, he read
while I mapped his voice line. There was only one small little dip at the period. The
rest was a flat line. I had deliberately chosen a reading passage with a lot of
potential for inflection and I modeled it for him. Then he tried again and again. With
each repetition, his voice was more expressive. When he came the next day I asked
him to read a different passage with the same amount of hills as the day before.
Once again, his voice was very flat. We proceeded like this for about a week and a
half devoting part of every session to voice mapping. Toward the end of the second
week, his teacher asked what strategy I was using with him. She said that whenever
he read aloud or listened to someone else reading aloud in the class, he drew
rollercoasters in his notebook and asked her whether he sounded hilly enough.
The auditory and visual connection resonated with him, although I had to remind
him each time he began reading or he would resort to his default monotone.
My K-2 students loved Doing Words and soon had thick manila envelopes filled
with their important words, phrases, and sentences. Students proudly read each of
their words for their parents at conferences in November. Students also had
developed proper letter formation by tracing and then writing their words into their
own books. Students learned through the power of their words about initial and
final consonant sounds, capitalization of proper nouns, common word endings such
as ing, and ed as well as plurals and compound words. Correct letter formation
has really gone by the wayside in many primary classrooms but this group of
students knows how to write right! Any program that has kindergarten title students
reading and writing 25-30 words by November is worth the time.
Understanding and Application of Standards
During the course of EDUC 681 I developed and demonstrated standards #1, #3,
and the Viterbo Standard Core Value/Hospitality
Standard #1: Teachers know the subjects they are teaching.
During the creation and application of the differentiated lessons in my title 1
classroom, I demonstrated my knowledge of early, emergent, and fluent readers
and writers. When my kindergarten and first grade students tell me their word for
the day, they are learning to label their life experiences with text. When they trace
the word, they learn proper letter formation and sound/symbol correspondence.
When they read their words to a friend or to me, they are learning that print has

meaning specifically for them. It is a magical process and one that I feel privileged
to witness on a daily basis. When my second graders do More Than Words, they
learn about sentence structure, grammar rules such as plurals and past-tense
endings as well as spelling conventions all within a personal framework of a
sentence or group of sentences that tells their story. I demonstrated my
understanding of the needs of developing and fluent readers when I created a
personal intervention for the boy with the monotone voice. He enjoyed the exercise
and applied it in the classroom. I utilize a variety of instructional formats including
guided learning, modeling, and shared learning experiences to both introduce and
practice literacy skills.

Standard #3: Teachers understand that children learn differently.

In my first year on the job, I learned to use the Barton System of Reading and
Spelling. It has given me a firm grasp of phonological rules and strategies I wish I
had known earlier in my career. But I relied too heavily on this one program when I
was getting started. Now, in my third year in this position, I use Barton Book 1 with
all incoming kindergarteners and some first graders who show a deficit in phonemic
awareness. Those who have a firm grasp of phonemic awareness jump into my
Doing Words and guided reading lessons as described above. All my second
graders do word work with dolch words during each lesson, but one girl needs lots
of extra practice with spelling so I have adapted Marie Clays sentence dictation. I
give her sentences made from the dolch words she needs to practice. When she can
spell the whole sentence correctly for two or three days in a row, we move on to
new words. It is this kind of adaptation to meet individual students needs that will
help them move along the path of literacy.
Viterbo Standard/Core Value: Hospitality
Although I had never thought about it as hospitality, I demonstrate this value in my
words and actions with all students. They are eager to see me and almost all are
anxious for our sessions together. Their pictures are on the wall and I tell them its
like my refrigerator full of pictures at home. We always begin with a brief sharing of
something important happening in their lives. The students who are Doing Words
start telling me what they want for their word that day while we are still in the
hallway. Inevitably I hear about an important family event, a happy or scary
moment, or the name of someone special in their life. I welcome their stories and
gain insight into their lives, their needs, and their strengths. I remember all my
students birthdays with cards and let them choose a book to keep. I have had to
make a conscious effort to welcome my middle school students since they are less
enthusiastic about being singled out for reading instruction. They occasionally get
snacks or hot chocolate. I also tell them personal stories that relate to the books we
are reading hoping that one day they will do the same. I feel I have done a good job
of treating every child as an honored guest.
Bibliography
Johnson, K. (1987) Doing Words. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Johnson, K. (1995) More Than Words. Tucson, AZ: Zephyr Press.