Think journal writing is a waste of time?  Not seeing the results you’d like?  You’re not alone. 

Despite the fact that Daily Journal Writing is one of the most powerful activities you can utilize in your classroom to get your kids writing fluently and conventionally, many teachers fail to see the value in dedicating a consistent portion of their day to journal writing due to lack of actual results.

Following are the top 10 reasons why journal writing often fails to get the results teachers are desiring.

 
#1:  Students don’t know how to sound out words and represent those sounds with the proper letters.  If students don’t understand how to sound out words and represent them with the proper letters, they are not going to be able to write anything more than whatever words they have managed to memorize.  You MUST teach your kids how to segment words and represent the sounds heard with the appropriate letters if you want your kids to feel free to write ANYTHING, not just a few simple sentences they have memorized and/or a variety of words they can copy off of a nearby wall.  This entails making sure they know letters, sounds, blending/segmenting techniques, “tricks” (letters and/or letter combinations that create new sounds when they appear together or in certain positions in words, such as sh, th, ch, er, oo, ou, etc.), and some “outlaw” words.


 #2:  Students aren’t given enough time to write.  Students need time to get into the writing process.  If they are only given 10 to 15 minutes to write, they often only get a chance to “warm up.”  To really get into the writing process, your students need at least 30 minutes of solid writing time.  40-60 minutes is preferred.  And they need this time DAILY, not weekly or monthly.


 #3:  The teacher is not utilizing journal writing time to help students move forward from wherever they are in the writing process.  Journal writing time is not code for “time to relax and get a few things done while the kids are busy.”  Rather, it is a time for the teacher to be circling around the room, helping students as needed.  This is an ideal time for the teacher to be moving kids forward from wherever they are, whether they are just learning to sound out words, are ready to write their first sentences, or are in need of more advanced advice.  For best results, the teacher should move from student to student, giving whatever mini lessons are needed to help propel each student forward from wherever he or she happens to be.


 #4:  The teacher has low expectations and/or announces a minimum number of sentences required.   Low expectations can kill your results.  You need to believe in ALL of your kids, not just the ones you know will succeed.  You also need to insist upon good, careful, thoughtful work.  And you need to encourage your kids (ALL of your kids) to fill up the page…and continue on to the next.  Announcing that your kids “must at least write 3-5 sentences” will likely limit your results significantly.  After all, as soon as most kids hear the “minimum required,” they are likely to give you just that.  Instead, get your kids excited about writing.  Tell them you can’t wait to read their stories!  Tell them how much you love LONG stories with big, juicy words!  Get them pumped up and make a really big deal out of those who use their time wisely and produce long, interesting stories.


 #5:  Kids are goofing off instead of writing.  It’s hard for even the most dedicated students to “get in the zone” when there is a lot of chatter and/or goofing off going on around them.  Make sure you have control of your classroom.  Let your students know that you expect them to be writing during journal time, not talking, playing, or goofing off.  Follow through with your discipline management system as needed to keep your kids busy and on task.  The only sounds you should hear during this time are kids sounding out words – unless you are quietly talking with them yourself.  


 #6:  Journal time is tossed aside to make time for other activities.  To get good at something, you need to practice it…frequently and consistently.  The more you practice, the better you should get, given you have the tools and knowledge you need to do so effectively.  Likewise, the less you practice, the less progress you should expect.  Thus, if you choose to neglect journal writing time in lieu of other activities, expect lesser results.  Increases in skill come with increases in proper practice.  If you only make time for your kids to write in their journals once a week or so, expect “once a week” results.  If you only allow them to practice writing in their journals once a month, expect “once a month” results.     For optimal “daily results,” have your kids practice writing DAILY!


 #7:  The teacher is not encouraging his or her kids.  A little encouragement can go a long way!  By telling your kids how much you love to see their writing and read their clever stories, you will be inspiring them to write more and more.  Forget to do this, and few kids will see the value of what they are being asked to do.  Oftentimes, kids who are not praised and/or encouraged will begin writing less and less, sloppier and sloppier.  To keep your kids motivated and excited, remember to praise them for their efforts and rave about their accomplishments.  Don’t take any of your kids for granted – encourage the slowest to the highest student, inspiring all of them to do their very best work.  Praise sincere effort and visible improvement as often as possible.   


 #8:  Students are given the wrong kind of paper to write on.  If you give your kids blank sheets of paper to write on, your kids are likely to write extra-large letters and fill up the page with a single word or sentence.  If you give your kids lined handwriting paper, your kids will probably have to write so large to “touch each line” that they won’t have room to write more than a sentence or two before they have “filled the page.”  Special “story paper” with the blank space at the top for the picture and special handwriting lines at the bottom may look cute, but it is no better.  There simply aren’t enough lines for a good story to be written.  Again, your kids will be lucky to write 2 or 3 sentences.  For best results, whether working with kindergartners or more advanced students, use a regular spiral notebook full of college ruled or wide ruled paper.  Your kids can ignore the lines in the beginning when they are just learning to label their pictures, and can begin to use the lines when they are ready to begin writing actual sentences.  Plus, the spiral bound notebook will keep each student’s journal entries together and in order so you can easily witness his or her progress throughout the year.  Furthermore, the abundance of lines will enable your kids to write really long stories! 


 #9:  The teacher assigns a topic that is uninspiring, restricted, or foreign.  If students don’t want to write about a certain topic for whatever reason (they don’t feel like it, the topic is limited in scope, they simply don’t know much about it, etc.), their writing is bound to suffer.  Instead of making your kids write about something specific that they may or may not have anything to say about, try letting them choose their own topics each day.  This will allow them to write about whatever they know about and/or are inspired to detail.  Of course, you can certainly supply some “emergency ideas” for those who have trouble coming up with something on their own.  Just remember – the idea behind Daily Journal Writing is to get your kids writing.  This enables you to see where they are in the writing process so you can help them move forward from wherever this may be.   Your goal is to help them learn how to express their ideas in complete sentences using proper (or at least close to proper) spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and spacing.  You can worry more about what your kids are writing about after you get them writing conventionally.


 #10:  The teacher asks students to simply copy words and/or sentences posted on a wall or written on the board.  Having students copy prewritten sentences is not the same as having them write sentences on their own.  Having them fill in a couple of predictable blanks to finish a sentence isn’t either.  If you are calling such activities “journal writing time,” you are not even scratching the surface of the true meaning of it.  The goal of journal writing time is to get your kids truly writing sentences and stories on their own, not copying them.  Teach your kids what they really need to know to read and/or write anything, and set them free to do so. This is what will enable them to get the practice and knowledge they need to be successful writers.  Once they get the idea of how to write what they want to say on their own using phonetic and/or inventive spelling, you can help them learn to spell more conventionally.


If you are one of the many teachers who has tried journals in the past but who has quickly given them up due to lack of visible progress, I urge you to give them another try, keeping the above list of items in mind.  After all, everything you need to teach your kids about writing can be done through effective journal writing time.  You simply need to lay the groundwork, supply the time, provide the necessary materials, encourage your kids on a daily basis, and help move them forward as necessary.  If you do all of this and avoid the common pitfalls, you should see your kids begin to soar.

All the best and much success,

Katy Huller

Author of Kinders Can! READ and WRITE!, Alphabasics, and Tricks Practice Cards (Set 1 and Set 2).  All available at www.KindersCanReadandWrite.com!

Ready or not, Halloween is coming!  My daughter has already picked out her costume.  She wants to be Yoda from Star Wars.  This suits her.  She’s tiny in stature but mighty in spirit.  Still, when she goes trick-or-treating this year, she is hoping to be greeted with TREATS, not TRICKS.  This makes sense -- how many kids that you know of would look forward to hiking through hilly neighborhoods on Halloween if they thought they were going to get a bunch of nasty tricks rather than treats? 

The same is true of reading.  If your kids discover they are going to get "tricked" rather than "treated" each time they try to make their way through written text, most will quickly lose interest, and many will stop wanting to read altogether.  After all, it won't be fun.  It won't even make sense. 

It will be confusing.  And frustrating.  And they won't want to do it.

Can you blame them?  Who among us looks forward to doing things that are hard for us...that don't make sense...that confuse us...that make us feel stupid...that scare us...that make the people we love most seem angry and frustrated around us?

Not many, that's for sure.

If you want to make reading more of a "treat" than a "trauma" for your kids, you must prepare them for the words they will encounter on their journeys before you send them out to discover the world of reading on their own. In other words, you must turn the "tricks" they are sure to come across into treats!

To make reading more of a "treat" for your kids, you must teach them more than letters, sounds, and "sight words."  You must teach them to blend sounds together, starting on the left and moving to the right.  And, equally as important but often overlooked or introduced way too late, you must make sure your kids are equipped to deal with the many "tricks" they are sure to meet along the way -- letters and/or letter combinations that create new sounds when they appear together or in a certain position in words than they normally make when alone. Combinations like sh, ch, th, er, or, ou, tion, oo, aw, ay, etc.  And don’t forget “sleepy e,” “2 vowels,” and “le endings.”  Y at the end of a short or long word is another doozie you need to remember to teach them.  There are many others as well.  I’ve counted up to 37 so far, but I’m sure there are more.   

One or more of these "tricks" are hiding in almost every word!  If you skip this part of their training and rely on teaching "sight words" instead, your kids (especially those with less than stellar visual memories) may just turn to the “dark side” and begin guessing their way through unfamiliar text, saying such things as “why” for very, “tell” for tall, “deserved” for discovered, and/or “admit” for amount. You might even hear them confuse the word I with A!  "Had" might become did.  "Take" might become like. Such scandalous switches are common among those who have been sent to battle words before they have been adequately trained to even spar with them.  They simply don't have the tools or training they need to deal with such skilled adversaries. Before long, one previously "known" word starts looking like the next, and these untrained "readers" either give up or resort to spitting out words from their mental Roladexes each time they see a word with a somewhat familiar letter, shape, or size.

Don't let this happen to your young Jedi.  Teach your kids what they really need to know to read the words they will soon encounter -- letters, sounds, “tricks,” a good blending/segmenting technique, and a few common “outlaw words” (words that can’t be sounded out even if you know the “tricks”).  If you teach them these skills and give them lots of guided practice using them, you should see your kids' reading habits skyrocket.  You should see them turn into excellent readers who get "treated" as they read rather than "tricked."   And, as reading the text before them becomes easier and easier, you should see your kids learn to love interacting with books and literature, rather than racing off to avoid them.  Or crying.  Or complaining.  Or throwing a king-sized fit.

Of course, you'll also have to make sure your kids have a good vocabulary, adequate background knowledge, and a few other key reading ingredients.  After all, being able to decode words effectively is only the first step.  To be real readers, your kids must also be able to understand them! 

Regardless of where your kids are today, start giving them the skills they need to move forward.  They are counting on you.  Don't end their training early and neglect to teach them what they really need to know to read the words around them.  Don't send them out to battle a book only halfway prepared.

As my daughter loves to quote from Yoda, "Try not.  Do.  Or do not.  There is no try.” 

Train your kids.  Teach them what they need to know to be successful readers and writers.  Send them out this Halloween and every day thereafter equipped to turn any "trick" into a treat.  You won't be sorry. 


All the best and much success…and may the Force be with you!

Katy Huller

Author of Kinders Can! READ and WRITE! and Tricks Practice Cards (Set 1 and Set 2).  All available at www.KindersCanReadandWrite.com!)

You may have a class full of advanced kindergartners.  Or you may have a class full of struggling ones.  More than likely, however, your class is full of all sorts of kids at all sorts of levels -- some who have known letters and sounds for years and others who are just beginning to make sense of them.  Not a problem.  If you focus on what’s important and teach your kindergartners what they really need to know to write well, you can amaze all the people following their progress this year, especially their parents and your principal!


Tip 1:  Help your kids learn to break up words and write the sounds they hear in the order they hear them.

Learning to hear a word and segment it into parts is crucial to becoming a writer.  For your kids to begin writing their thoughts down on paper, they must first understand how to hear a word, break it into its individual sound parts, and represent each sound heard with the appropriate letters.  For instance, when they hear the word "cat," they need to be able to immediately break it into /c/ /a/ /t/, hearing each sound that makes up the word.  Naturally, they'll need to know the letters that represent each sound as well...and be able to write them properly as well.

But my kids don’t even know letters and sounds yet!  When should I get them segmenting...and how?
If you want your kids to become great writers by the end of the school year, you should definitely start working on segmenting with your kids as soon as possible, preferably by the third full week of school -- even if you have kids who come in with very little letter/sound knowledge.  If you are following the Kinders Can! READ and WRITE! letter order, this is easy to do.  You will start blending and segmenting words that use the letters you have reviewed and/or focused on so far (t, o, and p).  That means that even the kids who only know the letters you have officially gone over will be able to start blending and segmenting right away, reading and writing the words top, pot, tot, and pop!  This will help them begin to understand how letters and sounds work together to make words.  Each week will further this understanding as you continue to blend and segment new words utilizing all of the letters and sounds you have officially covered.  As more and more letters/sounds have been covered, even your least exposed kids should be able to read more and more words with ease.  If you also include a daily alphabet review and a number of other activities that go over important letter/sound information throughout the day (read Kinders Can! READ and WRITE! for more information on how to do this), you should really see your kids take off!

Regardless of the program and/or letter order you are using, make sure you get your kids blending and segmenting with whatever letters and sounds they have learned, and do your best to cover all of the letters and sounds as quickly as possible so that a lack of letter/sound knowledge doesn't hold them back.

All of my kids already know letters and sounds.  What should I do?
If your kids come to you already knowing letters and sounds, you can bypass going over letters and sounds each week, and jump right into teaching your students how to put their letter/sound knowledge to use!  Right away, you’ll want to introduce them to blending and segmenting all sorts of consonant-vowel-consonant words.  Ideally, you’ll want to choose words that utilize all of the letters of the alphabet.  This will help your kids get a good review of letters and sounds as they learn to blend and segment them. (For free word cards, go to www.KidsCanReadandWrite.com!)

What if my kids are having trouble blending and/or segmenting?
As you go over how to put sounds together and break them apart, make sure you help your kids gain a good blending/segmenting technique.  This is key to the reading/writing process.  Your goal should be to help your kids actually hear what they are saying as they blend sounds together.  I like to have my kids "punch" the first sound (say it loudly and clearly by itself), drag out the middle sound (say it for longer), and quickly but a little more quietly add on the ending.  In other words, if my kids were reading the word hop, they would say, "/h/ /oooo/p/, hop!"  When first teaching them how to sound out words, I would help them sound out the word three times as a group before putting it together.  This helps everyone learn to blend more effectively, and gives your confused kids more time to understand what everyone is doing to get the correct word.  As your kids get the hang of how to sound out words quickly and efficiently, however, take your voice out completely and begin to have them sound out each word only once. 

Getting kindergartners reading and writing by the end of the school year is really a very simple task -- if you teach them in a way they can easily understand and follow.  Of course, those with significant learning disabilities are bound to struggle and may take a bit longer.  But your average kids, and even your below average kids, should be able to learn to read and write in kindergarten with relative ease.  And your above average and highly gifted kids should catch on in a snap!

When I say your kids should be able to read and write by the end of kindergarten, I mean that they should be able to pick up any little trade book they want to read and begin figuring out what it says.  Think:  The Little Engine That Could, Are You My Mother, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Curious George, etc.  And they should be able to write whatever comes to mind so that others can read it.

Yes, some of your kids are bound to be more fluent when reading whatever trade book they pick up than others, but ALL of your kids (except for those with significant learning issues) should be able to figure out the words on the page and understand the message behind them.  And, yes, some of your kids will have better spelling, spacing, and punctuation habits than others, but ALL of them (except for those with significant learning issues) should be able to express themselves through words and sentences -- without having to copy words off of a word wall or ask for help to write what they want to say.  In fact, most of my kindergarten students wrote full-page stories each day for the last few months of school.  And they did so ALL BY THEMSELVES!  You can get your kids to do this on their own as well!

The key is to use your time wisely and to teach everyone what they need to know to read and write new and/or unfamiliar words.  Making them learn lists of "sight words" won't do it.  Either will having them copy sentences off the board or word wall.  Busywork won't either.  Nor will coloring sheets. Or cute t.v. programs.

Instead, you'll have to use your precious time to teach them what they really need to know -- letters, sounds, blending and segmenting techniques, phonetic "tricks," and some of the most common "outlaw" words.  And you'll need to show them how to use all this knowledge to read and write real text.  While doing so, you'll need to work on improving their background knowledge and vocabulary.  And, no doubt, you'll have to work on their comprehension skills as well.  But when done in a systematic, methodical way, you can do all this AND have fun with your kids at the same time.

You can talk with them.  Read to them.  Teach new songs and cheers to them. 

You can get them writing fun stories, and can enjoy listening to them read them aloud to you afterward.

You can create with them, make food with them, solve problems with them.

You can do science experiments and discover all sorts of new facts about the world we live in with them.

And, if you've really used your time wisely, you can send them on to their first grade teachers fully capable of reading and writing just about anything they can get their hands on or think up!  What's more, you can send them on with lots of real world knowledge and problem solving skills as well.

Interested?  Read the new, fully updated edition of Kinders Can!  READ and WRITE!   It will walk you through exactly what you need to do to get your kindergarten students reading and writing this year.  Go to www.KindersCanReadandWrite.com to get your digital copy TODAY!

Wishing you all the best and much success,
Katy Huller

www.KindersCanReadandWrite.com

Okay… Let’s say your kids know their letters and sounds already.  Or maybe they just know a few of them but will soon know many more.  What should you do next?

As soon as your kids know enough letters and sounds to make a few words, it’s time to get them blending!  Let’s say they know the letters t, o, and p (the first three letters introduced in the Kinders Can! READ and WRITE! program).  Put the letters together to make as many regular consonant-vowel-consonant words as possible — top, pot, pop, tot.  Then show your kids how to use the letter sounds they have learned to sound out the words at hand.  In other words, teach them how to blend these letter sounds together to make real words!

 
Your goal when teaching your kids to blend sounds together should be to help  them “hear” the word as they make the letter sounds.  I like making the first sound on its own, emphasizing and dragging out the middle sound/vowel, and quickly (and a bit more quietly) adding on the ending sound so that it attaches itself to the middle sound.  Then I hook the beginning sound onto the rest.

When first teaching kids to blend, I typically ask them to use this blending technique three times in a row before actually blending the word together.  This not only helps them hear the word, but map this crucial information in their brains as well.

To be clear, when sounding out the word “top”, we would go, /t/,/oooo/p/ …  /t/, /oooo/p/ … /t/, /oooo/p/ … /top/.  Then I would ask them to use the word in a  sentence, making sure they understood the word they said aloud.
 

After seeing a board breaking demonstration in school one day, my seven-year-old daughter decided she wanted to become a black belt.  I signed her up happily, knowing it would be good for her mind as well as her body.

When my daughter went to her first class, I noticed that she could barely do
a push-up.  I can remember seeing her arms shake as she tried to lift her body
up and put it back down again.  And I wasn’t even wearing my glasses.

As I watched, I wondered if she would ever be able to keep up with the kids
in her class.  They were so fit.  And the forms they were doing seemed so
complicated.  Would my little Anna ever really be able to become a black
belt?

Day after day, I was amazed at how her enthusiastic instructors allowed her
to grow at her own pace.  At how they didn’t seem the least bit concerned about her small stature or lack of muscle power.  At how they encouraged her…and motivated her, helping her to improve steadily and meet each new challenge with an open mind and heart.

Little by little, she got stronger and stronger.

Now, ten months later, she cranks out push-up after push-up.  Her arms are strong, her legs are strong, and every day she is getting closer and closer to her goal – becoming a black belt.

Teaching someone to read is a very similar process.  It takes time.  And energy.  And lots of positive encouragement.  And patience.