The Four Blocks

Literacy Model
Why this hoo haa
about reading and
writing?
Why is Reading & Writing
Important?
• Students need to be able to write so they can express
themselves and communicate for a variety of purposes
• If a student is not able to read and write, they will
always need an adult with them for assistance.
• Life outcomes – how much richer is your life because
you can read and write?
Methods that we use
Sight Words/Flash Cards
• Teaching in isolation without context
• When reading, does not help students with decoding
skills needed to identify words that are not sight words
• When writing, students lack the skills needed to get
their thoughts out
• If students go straight from the alphabet to sight words,
they may not even understand what a word is!
Handwriting/Tracing
• Every student needs a pencil, whether it is traditional, a
computer, or a form of AAC.
• If a student is not able to write legibly, you can still work
on handwriting, but give him a tool that he can use to
participate in literacy activities!
• Handwriting and tracing provides no context for what
the student is writing
Linear Approach to Literacy
• The idea that students need to have prerequisite skills
before it is worthwhile to do literacy instruction with
them
• This is how we end up with students who are still
working on their letters or tracing their name when they
graduate
• Goes hand in hand with the last two slides, as these
prerequisite skills are often the ones performed in
isolation
Picture Symbols
• While picture symbols can be useful for communication,
they can actually be detrimental for literacy instruction
• In some cases, students can rely on the pictures instead
of decoding the word
• In many cases, picture symbols are not helpful at all in
identifying words and just provide another layer of
confusion…let’s try this exercise.
What are the Four
Blocks?
What is the 4 block approach
• Developed more than a decade ago by literacy experts Dr.
Patricia Cunningham and Dr. Dorothy Hall in conjunction with
first grade teacher, Margaret DeFee, Four Blocks is a
balanced-literacy* framework for teaching language arts in
grades 1-3. The Four Blocks program -- based on the premise
that all children don't learn in the same way -- integrates four
language arts areas into reading instruction. Those areas are:
• 1.guided reading,
• 2.self-selected reading,
• 3.writing, and
• 4.working with words.
Self-Selected Reading & Guided
Reading
Self-Selected Reading: Guided Reading:
Purpose: Help students develop the skills to select Purpose: Give students experience with a wide variety
reading materials that they find interesting. Provide of text types. Increase student ability to self-select and
opportunities for students to share and respond to apply purposes for comprehending
what they are reading

Working with Words & Writing

Working With Words Writing:
Purpose: Help children learn high frequency words Purpose: Help students develop the skills to
needed for fluent, successful reading with independently write a variety of texts for real
comprehension. Teach children the skills required to purposes on topics of interest. Provide opportunities
decode and spell words they will use for reading and for teachers to conference individually with children
writing about the texts they are composing
Why This Approach?
• It can be used with ANY curriculum.
• It can be used in all curricular models
• Most importantly it produces positive results for ANY
student regardless of their disability category or
cognitive level.
• When students are engaged in quality instruction
unwanted behaviors can decrease and learning
increases.
Guided Reading
Guided Reading Purpose
• Provide experience in a wide variety of text types
• Help students develop the skills necessary for the
mechanics of reading (left to right top to bottom)
• Apply purposes for comprehension
• What good is reading if you cannot understand what
you are reading
Guided Reading Strategies
• Anchor-Read-Apply (ARA)
• Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DR-TA)
• Know, Want to know, Learned (KWL)
• Parallel Strategy for Expository Text
Anchor Read Apply (before-during-
after)
• Anchor (before)
• Build or activate background knowledge or personal connection
making
• Set a clear purpose for reading/listening
• Read (during)
• Reading/listening for bulk of time
• Apply (after)
• • Complete a task directly related to purpose
• • Follow up and feed back
Example of ARA
• Story: The Big Blue Ox
• A: Discuss ways you help out at home
• R: Read to list how the Ox helps out Mom and Pop
• A: List ideas on board
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
(DR-TA) (Stauffer)
• Students look at title or pictures and PREDICT story
• • Students READ to a predetermined stopping place
• • Students PROVE the accuracy of their predictions and modify or
make new predictions
Example of DR-TA
• Story: A Big Fish for Max
• • Tell the students the title of the book without showing them the
cover or pages.
• • Have students predict what the book is about. Write predictions on
board. Read to see if predictions were true
• • Stop partially through text to check predictions
KWL
• • Know
• • Want to Know
• • Learned
Example of KWL
• Story: How Do You Raise a Raisin?
• • Make a KWL chart(know, want to know, learned)
• Fill out the K with their ideas & facts about raisins & fill out the
• W with what they want to know (give examples if needed)
• • Read to fill out the L portion of the chart
• • Fill out the L portion of the KWL chart with things you learned about
raisins
Parallel Strategy for Expository Text
• Yes or No? Before
• The alpaca resembles a small llama.
• • The alpaca lives in the islands of Hawaii.
• • Alpacas were bred as pack animals.
• • Alpaca fur is used to make mohair
Passage
• The alpaca is a domesticated animal from South America. It resembles
a small llama in appearance. Alpacas are kept in herds that graze on
the level heights of the Andes of southern Peru, northern Bolivia,
Ecuador, and northern Chile at an altitude of 11,500 to 16,000 ft
above sea level. Alpacas were bred to specifically for their fleece.
Alpaca fleece is used for making knitted and woven items, similar to
wool. The fleece comes in more than 52 natural colors as classified in
Peru. In the textile industry, "alpaca" primarily refers to the hair of
Peruvian alpacas, but more broadly it refers to a style of fabric
originally made from alpaca hair but now often made from similar
fibers, such as mohair.
Shared Reading
Shared Reading
• Purpose:
• • Provide experience in a wide variety of text types
• • Help students develop the skills necessary for the mechanics of
reading (left to right top to bottom)
• • Apply purposes for engagement
• • How can you understand what you are reading if you are not
engaged in the text
Shared Reading
• The reader …
• • Encourages communication
• • Follows student’s interests
• • Attributes meaning to all attempts
• • Makes connections between book & student’s experiences
• • Thinks aloud to model thought processes
• • Models using student’s communication symbols
• The student…
• • Leads the activity!
Follow the C-A-R
• An approach to structuring shared reading interactions
• • Lead with a COMMENT.
• • STOP and wait 5-30 seconds.
• • ASK a question.
• • STOP and wait 5-30 seconds.
• • RESPOND by adding more.
Put the CROWD in the CAR
CROWD
• • Completion
• • Recall
• • Open-Ended
• • Wh- Questions
• • Distancing
• Rotate through them as it makes sense!
Completion
• • Leave a blank at the end of a sentence and child fills it in.
• • These are typically used in books with rhyme or books with
repetitive phases.
• • Example, ”Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? I see a white
dog looking at ____," letting the child fill in the blank with the word
me.
• • Completion questions help students begin to understand the
structure of language in books.
Recall
• • Questions about what happened in a portion of the book that has
just been read.
• • Example, “Tell me what the little truck did.”
Open-Ended
• • Questions that do not have specifically right/wrong answers. •
Usually focus on the pictures in books.
• • Example, "Tell me what's happening in this picture."
Wh- Questions
• • Questions that begin with what, where, when, why, and how.
• • Typically focus on the pictures in books.
• • Example, ”What does the man have?”
Distancing
• • Questions that relate what is in the book to experiences outside the
book.
• • Form a bridge between books and the real world.
• • Example, ”You saw animals at the farm. What animal did you see at
the farm?"
Strive for Five
• • Frequent, extended conversations with adults promote better
language and literacy outcomes.
• • Keep child engaged in conversation – do not let it end after the child
has contributed just one or two turns.
• • Conversation between an adult and a child should go back‐and‐
forth at least five times
Non Verbal Shared reading
• • Use of open ended, “core” vocabulary allow adults to respond to
student multiple times throughout the activity.
• • Core vocabulary is flexible and can be used with different books
over time.
• • Consistent symbol set fosters motor/visual memory
• • Consider long term utility. Can these words be used in other
activities, settings, etc.?
Shared Reading
• • Strategy that can be used with ALL students
• •It’s all about the communication and engagement
• • Supports emergent literacy concepts
• •Utilize core words to maximize interaction
• • Follow the CAR
Working With Words
Purpose of Working with Words
Block
• • Students practice multilevel phonetic activities that are designed for
children of all ability levels.
• • Help children learn high-frequency words needed for fluent,
successful reading with comprehension
• • Teach children the skills required to decode and spell words they
will use for reading and writing
• • Phonics • Phonemic Awareness/ Alphabet
Specific Students Target Different
Things
• • Conventional:
• • Word identification
• • Automaticity
• • Phonics

• • Emergent:
• • Alphabet
• • Phonemic Awareness
Different Activities
• • Word Wall
• • Guess the covered word
• • Guess the mystery word
• • Word sorts
• • Making words (Systematic Sequential Phonics, Sonday)
• • Phonemic Awareness
• • Alphabet games
Word Wall
• • 10-15 minutes per day
• • Large display
• • 5 words a week for 6 weeks then 3 weeks review
• • Colors behind words in a randomized way, cut around tall/short
letters
• • Smallest is 2 inch letters
• • 37 common rhymes,
• Dolch words, high interest words
• • Search Word wall chants in Google
games
• Guess The Covered Word
• Guess The Mystery Word (Hangman)
• Word Sorts
Phonemic Awareness
• • Isolation: What is the first sound in cat?
• • Identity: What sound is the same in bag, butter and ball?
• • Categorization: Which word doesn’t belong? Fun, four, sit
• • Blending: What word is /t/ /a/ /n/ write on board
• • Segmentation: How many sounds in fast? /f/ /a/ /s/ /t/ 4 write on board
• • Deletion: What is blast without the /b/?
• • Addition: What word do you have if you add /c/ to the word at?
• • Substitution: The word id dog. Change the /d/ to /l/. What is the new
word?
Alphabet Games
• • Singing a variety of alphabet songs
• • Draw a letter from a box to read a corresponding word from word
wall
• • Draw letters/words in a variety of materials: rice, sand, salt, dirt, gel,
etc.
• • I spy letters
• • Show videos
Writing
Writing Block Purpose
• • See writing as a way to tell about things
• • Learn to read through writing
• • Beyond copying, beyond tracing that is fine motor writing. Our goal
is writing for literacy.
• • Help students develop the skills to independently write a variety of
texts for real purposes on topics of interest
• • Provide opportunities for teachers to conference individually with
children about the texts they are composing
What Is Not Writing?
• • Copying
• • Tracing
• • Handwriting exercises
• • Fill-in-the-blank
• • Writing with symbols
• • Grammar worksheets
More On Emergent Writing What is
it?
• • The marks, scribbles, lines, and randomly selected letters of
beginning writers During emergent writing students are learning:
• • How to use a pencil
• • To experiment and construct understandings
• • That writing is communication
• • To represent their ideas
Specific Students Target Different
Things
• Conventional: Goal:
• Build skills to communicate experiences, thoughts, feelings, and understandings for diverse
audiences and purposes.
• • Prewriting
• • Draft
• • Revise
• • Edit
• • Publish
• Emergent: Goal: Build early understanding of the functions of print
• • -Think
• • -Draw (pick picture if can not draw)
• • -Write
• • -Put your name on paper
• • -Read what you wrote to your teacher who date stamps and records on back
Writing Activities
• • Predictable Chart Writing
• •Give Me 5
• • Lists
• •Independent Writing
• • Writing Process Instruction
• • Alternative Pencils
• • Finding meaning
Predictable Chart Writing
• Goal: Build early understandings of the concept of word and word
identification.
• A group writing activity, five step process, results in a book for the
class library, easily differentiated to meet a variety of student needs
• • 1: Write chart 2: Reread & work with chart 3:Work with cutup
sentence strips 4: Be the sentence 5: Make the book
PCW Example Starters
• My name is _____.
• •I see a _____.
• • A ___ lives in the ocean.
• •I am ___ years old.
• •I like to eat _____
Give Me 5 Camping
• Student 1 - Student 2

• - Student 3 - Student 4 -
Lists
• Think of all the things people make lists of….
• This is a very functional academic skill
Independent Writing
• • Think
• • Draw (pick picture if can not draw)
• • Write • Put your name on paper
• • Read what you wrote to your teacher who date stamps and records
on back
• Student is dictating the writing, teacher can influence with prewriting
activities. Not prompting with ideas, prompting with tell me more…
Finding Meaning Personal
Connections are the Key
Independent/Self-
Selected Reading
• Increase the odds that students choose to read once
they are able.
• Increase competence in skimming, scanning, sampling,
selecting appropriate and interesting books.
• Increase competence in sharing interest and excitement
about reading.
• Increase fluency in application of skills learned in guided
reading and words blocks
Self-Selected Reading Activities

• Read aloud
• Self-Selected choice
• Needs access to several easy books around
comprehension levels
• Silent reading
• Conferencing around story
• Sharing opportunities
• Tarheel reader
Teacher Read-Aloud
• Teachers read to students every day regardless of
students’ age or reading ability.
• Select books that are at or near the students’ listening
comprehension levels.
• Attract students to new authors and new books by
reading only the beginning of a book and leaving them
hanging.
Read-Aloud
• Do’s
• Read aloud daily from a variety of materials.
• Teach students how to listen to stories.
• Set purposes for listening.
• Link the text to the students’ experiences.
• Make the book available after the read-aloud.
• Don’ts
• Discourage questions and comments.
• Read too fast.
• Don’t insist on consensus or correct interpretation.
Self-Selected Reading
• Needs access to several easy books around
comprehension levels
• Can use power point and other multimedia books
• Tarheelreader.org
• Accessible books
• Books face out
• Easier to reach
• More attractive
Silent Reading
• Use of inner voice
• Non verbal look for signs of vocalization while reading,
following along with eyes
• Often students are taught to read aloud but do not
receive enough opportunities to read silently
Conferencing Around Story and
Sharing
• Opportunities to the students to share what they are
interested in with others
• • Opportunities for teacher to monitor how much is read
and what levels the student feels comfortable with
Tar Heel Reader
• Create and print stories of interest to the students
• Create easier forms of higher level text for secondary
students
• Download read aloud stories into ibooks for students to
use during self-selected reading
• Play stories on computer during self-selected reading