The document discusses teaching methods for reading and writing in grades 2-3. It focuses on four aspects: the complexity of reading, teaching phonics, teaching reading, and teaching writing. Specific topics covered include how the brain learns to read, developing reading skills from an early age, phonics instruction, using visuals to support reading, developing automaticity, paired reading activities, comprehension strategies, writing paragraphs, using punctuation, and assessing writing progress. The document provides detailed explanations and examples to support teaching reading and writing at a foundational level.

1. Shine in-depth training
Dr Jacqui Dornbrack

2. Focus on four aspects
1. The complexity of the reading process
2. Teaching phonics
3. Teaching reading
4. Teaching writing

3. Reading and the brain
• We were not born to read(no genetic disposition)
• Recently acquired cultural invention that requires
something new from existing structures in the
brain
• Reading can only take place because of the
brain’s ‘plastic’ design
• When reading takes place the brain is changed
forever both physiologically and intellectually
• Eg a person who learns to read in Chinese uses a
different set of pathways to when they read in
English. Hence we are what we read

4. When do we learn to read/
• Process begins as soon as an infant is read to
• ‘how often this happens, or fails to happen, in
the first five years of childhood turns out to be
one of the best predictors of later reading’
(Wolf, 2007:20).
• By kindergarten a gap of 32 million words
already separates some children in
linguistically impoverished homes from their
more stimulated peers (Wolf, 2007:20)

5. • Reading for pleasure not modelled (usually
associated with school & work)
• Children with a rich repertoire of words and
their associations will experience a
text/conversation very differently from
children who not not have the same stored
words and concepts
• We bring our entire store of meanings to
whatever we read

6. • isiXhosa and Afrikaans are phonetic languages
(direct link between sounds and letters)
• English is a phonemic language (complex link
between letters and sounds; many exceptions
and many distinctions between vowel sounds
(21 English vowel sounds!!!)
• This makes learning it very difficult

7. Learning to read a language you don’t
know
• Ear-training (auditory memory)
• Discriminate between sounds
• Remember the acoustic qualities of sounds
• Compare sounds with memory images
• Form speech sounds (‘gymnastics of the vocal
organs’)

8. 3 cueing strategies for reading
1. Grapho-phonic (grapheme and phonemes)
2. Syntactic (knowledge of language structures)
3. Semantic (Knowledge of the word and the
world)
Meaning is in the person not the word!!!

9. Phonics
• Have to learn to recognise various speech-sounds
• Learn to make sounds with own organs of
articulation
• Learn to use these sounds in their proper
places
• Learn the sound-attributes (length, pitch,
stress)
• Learn to join the sounds

10. Grade 3 Phonics (CAPS)
• Uses words that are pronounced and spelt the
same but have different meanings
(homophones) eg trap,
• Uses words that sound the same but are spelt
differently (hear, here; bare, bear….
• Builds 3, 4 and 5-letter words
• Sorts letters and words into alphabetical order
• Spells words correctly using their phonic
knowledge

12. Showing the ‘I’ sound

13. Segmenting sounds

14. Visual reference for vowels

15. Need for automaticity
• Working memory (cognitive blackboard) has to
work even harder when you are unfamiliar with
structures, words, sounds and concepts
• Can lessen the load by: Improving speed (sight
words & eye movement (and finger movement!!)
• and scaffolding text more through visuals and
prediction

16. Paired/Independent Reading
• Reads own and others writing
• Reads aloud to a partner
• Reads independently simple fiction
• and non-fiction books and books from
different cultures, books read in Shared
Reading sessions, magazines and
comics

17. Grade 3 reading
• Reads enlarged texts such as fiction and non-fiction big
books, newspaper articles, plays, dialogues and
electronic texts (computer texts)
• Reads book and discusses the main idea, the
characters, the ‘problem’ in the story, the plot and the
values in the text
• Answers a range of higher order questions based on
the passage read

18. Grade 3 reading continued
• Reads different poems on a topic
• Uses visual cues to talk about a graphical text, e.g.
advertisements, pictures, graphs, charts and maps
• Finds and uses sources of information, e.g. community
members, library books
• Uses table of contents, index and page numbers to find
information
• Uses key words and headings to find information in non-fiction
texts
• Uses a dictionary to find new vocabulary and their
meanings

19. Reading for meaning
• Meanings of words, sentences, visuals,
• Importance of prediction
• Inferred meanings
• Use task words such as: identify, point out,
describe, show, locate, list, contrast,
summarise, classify….
• Draw attention to language structure and
punctuation

20. Grade 2 writing
• Participates in a discussion and contributes ideas
• Experiments with words: writes a simple poem or
song
• Writes at least two paragraphs (ten sentences) on
personal experiences or events such as a family
celebration
• Drafts, writes and publishes own story of at least two
paragraphs, using language such as ‘once upon a time’
and ‘in the end’

21. Grade 2 writing continued
• Organizes information in a chart or table
• Uses informational structures when writing (eg recipes)
• Sequences text by using words like ‘first’, ‘next’ and ‘finally’
• Uses correct punctuation (full stops, commas, question
marks and exclamation marks) so that others can read what
has been written
• Spells common words correctly and attempts to spell
unfamiliar words using phonic knowledge
• Uses present, past and future tenses correctly

22. Grade 3 Writing
Writes a selection of short texts for different purposes, e.g.
writes recounts, dialogues
• Writes about personal experiences in different forms, e.g.
writes a short newspaper article
• Drafts, writes, edits and ‘publishes’ own story of at least
two paragraphs (at least 12 sentences) for others to read
• Writes and illustrates six to eight sentences on a topic to
contribute to a book for the class library
• Uses informational structures when writing, e.g.
experiments, recipes
• Keeps a diary for one week

23. • Writes a simple book review
• Sequences information and puts it under headings
• Summarises and records information, e.g. using mind maps
• Uses punctuation correctly, e.g. capital letters, full stops,
commas, question marks, exclamation marks, inverted
commas, apostrophes in contractions)
• Uses conjunctions to form compound sentences
• Uses phonics knowledge and spelling rules to write more
difficult words
• Uses a dictionary

24. Writing assessment Grade 3 term 2
• Writes a simple book review
• Writes at least two paragraphs (ten or more sentences) on
personal experiences such as daily news or a school event
• Uses correct grammar so that others can read and
understand what has been written
• Uses phonics knowledge and spelling rules to write unfamiliar
words
• Uses punctuation correctly; capital letters, full stops, commas,
question marks, exclamation marks and inverted commas

25. Writing you can do at Shine
• Write lists
• Write about family, food, pets, transport
• Write descriptions (house, friend, mom,…)
• Write a card (thank you, birthday….)
• Write a headline
• Write short poem
• Dictate and create sentences