This document discusses activities to link classroom instruction to DIBELS assessments. It begins by having teachers rate their current implementation of DIBELS activities. It then provides information on letter knowledge, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, and examples of activities that address each skill and can be differentiated for students. Suggestions are given for how to sustain student engagement during workstations and links to additional online resources are provided.

1. As you enter the room: 1. Find the 1-10 continuum chart. 2. Rate yourself, with 10 being “high”, in using DIBELS-related activities in your classroom. 3. Place a stickie where your score should be. Be honest!  Where are you now with your implementation of DIBELS-related activities? 1

2. 2 Linking the Learning for ALL Students UsingDIBELSto Put the Learning Puzzle Together August 18, 2009

3. Linkingthe Learning 3 Why are we administering DIBELS? How is DIBELS Linked to Imagine It? How do I create meaningful activities that sustain & provide repeated practice?

4. Linking the Learning DIBELS 4

5. Why do we administer DIBELS in Kindergarten? 5

7. Accurate

8. Immediate, concise data

9. Benchmark measures

10. Progress monitors

11. Creates reading groups

12. Nationally normed

13. Linked to “Big 5”

15. What DIBELS measures are administered in K? 8

17. Let’s take a closer look at essential reading components and the links to Imagine It. 10

18. Linking the Learning Letter 11

19. What do you know about Letter Knowledge as it relates to LNF? 12

20. Letter Knowledge Ability to recognize letter shapes and then connect these shapes to letter names Ability to name the letters and ultimately know their sounds Ability to form the letters 13

21. Letter Characteristics Visually similar: n, h Phonologically similar: m & n Visually and phonologically similar: p, d, b 14

22. Why teach Letter Knowledge? 15

23. Why? Letter Knowledge “Knowing letter names provides a springboard for learning and remembering letter-sound relationships.” 16

24. What does research say about Letter Knowledge? 17

25. Research findings… A child’s ability to identify the letters of the alphabet by name is one of the best predictors of how readily he or she will learn to read. Reading depends first and foremost on visual letter recognition. Kindergarten letter identification is almost as successful at predicting later reading skill as an entire reading readiness test. 18

26. Linking the Learning Phonological Awareness 19

27. What do you know about Phonological Awareness & Phonemic Awareness? 20

28. Phonological Awareness & Phonemic Awareness Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that incorporates phonemic awareness. Includes awareness that sentences are made up of words, words can be broken into parts or syllables, and ending parts of words can rhyme. Phonemic awareness focuses on the individual sounds of words. It is the awareness that words are made up of a series of individual sounds. Phonological Awareness Phonemic Awareness ≠ 21

29. Phonological Awareness Phonological Awareness syllable awareness word awareness Phoneme awareness onset-rime awareness 22

30. Why teach Phonological Awareness? 23

31. Why? Phonemic Awareness It is necessary in learning to read and spell the English language because English is alphabetic. Sounds correlate with letters to make words. Research has demonstrated a strong link between phonemic awareness and beginning reading Requires readers to notice how letters represent sounds. It primes readers for print. It gives readers a way to approach sounding out and reading new words. It helps readers understand the alphabetic principle (that the letters in words are systematically represented by sounds). 24

33. blend and split words (f oot)

34. blend sounds into words (m_a_n)

35. segment a word as a sequence of sounds (e.g., fish is made up of three phonemes, /f/ , /i/, /sh/)

37. Does phonemic awareness instruction improve reading? YES, YES, YES! 27

38. Using your Imagine It cards, take a few minutes & look for PA activities. 28

39. Linking the Learning Phonics 29

40. Now let’s move on to phonics! 30

41. What do you know about Phonics? 31

42. What is Phonics? It is the pairing of a sound with the letter or letters (graphemes) that represent that sound This pairing is also called sound/symbol correspondence 32

43. Why teach Phonics? 33

44. Why Teach Phonics? Phonics helps all learners Good readers spell better with phonics instruction Many children, even good readers, read more effectively with explicit, systematic phonics instruction Phonetic knowledge is especially important for beginning readers, poor readers, or “at risk” students 34

46. Associate an alphabetic character (i.e., letter) with its corresponding phoneme or sound.

47. Identify a word based on a sequence of letter-sound correspondences (e.g., that "mat" is made up of three letter-sound correspondences /m/ /a/ /t/).

48. Blend letter-sound correspondences to identify decodable words.

49. Use knowledge of letter-sound correspondences to identify words in which letters represent their most common sound.

50. Identify and manipulate letter-sound correspondences within words.

52. Are phonemic awareness & phonics the same? 37

53. Phonemic Awareness and Phonics Phonemic awareness instruction focuses students’ attention on the sounds of spoken words Phonemic awareness instruction helps students make the connection between letters and sounds During reading and spelling activities, students begin to combine their knowledge of phonemic awareness and phonics 38 Phonemic Awareness ≠ Phonics

54. Examples of Tasks Illustrating Alphabetic Understanding 39 Letter-sound associations:What is the sound of this letter? Sound Blending:Blend the sounds of these letters to make a word /mmm aaa nnn/. Segmenting:What sounds do you hear in this word? Manipulating letter-sound correspondences in words:What word would you have if you change the /n/ in /nap/ to /l/? Reading pseudowords:What is this word, mip? Word identification:What is this word, map?

55. Using your Imagine It cards, take a few minutes & look for phonics examples. 40

56. Linking the Learning Activities 41

57. How can I create meaningful activities that link to DIBELS assessments? 42

58. Scaffolded Activities Differentiated for All Students Let’s take a look at a Letter Naming Fluency activity that can be supported for all learners in your room. 43

59. 44

60. 45

61. 46

62. How do I effectively sustain students during workstations? 47

63. 48 Let’s look at some activities together!

65. Letter Naming Fluency Alphabet Borders Letter Cards Alphabet Arc Clip-a-Letter Sorting Letters Pasta Names Poetry Pen Alphabet Memory Game Alphabet Tiles Name Sort Lettercritter Hungry Letter Mouse Tap Stack 50

66. Initial Sound Fluency One Card Out Alliteration Action Popular Pals Silly Sentence Big Book Quick Pick Sound Train Pack-a-Backpack Phoneme Go Fish Sound Snacker-Sound Smacker Phoneme Dominoes Sound It-Bag It Final Sound Match Up Sound Pie Sound Bags Sound Pictures and Picture Puzzles See it-Sound It The Last Sound Is… Move and Tell Sound Quest 51

67. Phoneme Segmentation Fluency Quick Pick Rime House Sound Detective Guessing Game Phoneme Photos Phoneme Hopscotch The Sound Game Sound Spin Treasure Chest Picture Slide Drop and Say Name Changes Phonemes Phones Name that Sound Phoneme Feud Phoneme Closed Sort Say and Slide Phonemes 52

68. Nonsense Word Fluency Words Around Us Memory Letter-Sound Dominoes Letter Bag Letter-Sound Pyramid Letter-Sound Folder Sort Letter-Sound Mobile Letter-Sound Bingo Medial Phoneme Spin Where’s That Sound? Letter-Sound Match Onset and Rime Slid Picture the Word Say It Now Rime Closed Sort Word Swat Change-a-Word Word Roll-a-Game Word Maker Game Vowel Stars Word Steps Letter Cube Blending Phonics Phones Letter Cube Blending Draw a card word game Spin-A-Word Say and Write Letters Carpet Square Words Make A Word Clothespin Word Line Segmenting Train Brown Bag It Photo Chart Letter-Sound Place Charts 53

69. Let’s reflect on what we learned about each assessment… 54