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Chelsie Fuller
CIRG 653
Module 6

From chapter 6 of the Gunning text, I wanted to start with using high-frequency

words (HFW) or better known as sight words. High-frequency words are words that

students can count on encountering in almost anything that they will read. Some

examples of HFW words are the, of, was, a, and to (Gunning, p.241). You may have

heard of the Fry 200 list before, which is a list of 200 sight words to refer to when

teaching. It is important to provide instruction where students can make connections.

For example, when teaching the word at, you should go ahead and introduce the words

that, hat, bat, etc., and show the students how the words are related (Gunning, YEAR).

When I teach HFWs in my classroom, we start with segmentation and blending. So, for

the word help, I would start by writing h, then pointing to the letter and asking for the

sound. Next, I would write the letter e, and ask for the sound. After students give me the

sound, I would then say Blend, and students would then blend the two sounds. I would

do this until we are done with the entire word and they can successfully blend the word

help. Another way that I help students with words that are tricky such as was or of is by

introducing them as heart words (irregular words). I tell students that heart words are

words that we have to know by heart because they are not spelled as they sound. We

use a heart-word template, and we practice writing the word, segmenting the word, and

identifying the heart part of the word. Another way that I incorporate fluency and

accuracy of HFWs in class is by introducing the concept such as i_e and then adding

words that would match that concept such as like. It is best to provide students with

concepts that they can relate to other concepts as well.

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Chelsie Fuller
CIRG 653
Module 6

It is no secret that informal and formal assessments are important when it comes

to monitoring a student’s success. I use a lot of informal assessments throughout

teaching such as quick clipboard checks, informal assessments in small groups, and

more. When it comes to assessments, I like to use small groups to help me determine

the material that a student knows so that I can drive my individual or small groups

toward that specific goal. Building fluency is a crucial skill in learning to read, it also

helps with comprehension. Gunning (p. 246) mentions that if a student is not fluent, they

spend so much time trying to decode so many words that they do not have the mental

energy to begin to understand what they read. Gunning states, “Reading Fluency is the

essential link from word recognition to comprehension.” There are four parts to building

fluency: prosody, accuracy, comprehension, and automaticity. When teaching I practice

a lot of echo and choral reading. Ultimately, the students feel more comfortable reading

since there is no pressure of having to read aloud by themselves. It is non-threatening

and is a good way for struggling readers to practice their reading skills. When we echo

read, we are usually using short texts that are paired with the skill we are learning for

the week. So for example, this week, we have been learning the u_e sound, so the

stories we have read focus on having words with that sound such as blue, tune, rude,

and more. With echo and choral reading, I can also use informal assessments as I walk

around the room and listen to students read. I also like to use whisper read which is

where the students whisper aloud the story to themselves and I walk around to listen to

what they are saying.

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Chelsie Fuller
CIRG 653
Module 6

The last strategy that I felt was an important strategy is teaching the concept of

print. It may sound silly but when I first started teaching first grade, there were some

students that did not know how to hold a book properly. They would still hold them

upside down, not start from the beginning of the book, not reading the sentence from

beginning to end, and much more. Concepts of print should be taught first. Concepts of

print entail the concepts of letters, words, and sentences in isolation within a text. There

are multiple parts to the concept of print: concept of book such as handling, front, and

back; directionality, mechanics, and alphabet knowledge. When I teach this in my class,

I always use the big books and draw specific attention to text features. I point out the

title, author, illustrator, punctuation, capital letters, and front and back of the book. We

do this daily, with each book that we read. I also do it with read alouds, and with my

small groups and decodables.

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Chelsie Fuller
CIRG 653
Module 6

References:

Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. 10th ed., Pearson

Education, Inc, 2020.

Victoria State Government. “Concepts of Print.” Vic.gov.au, Education and Training,

2019, www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/

english/literacy/readingviewing/Pages/litfocusconceptsprint.aspx.