From Apathy to EngagementI— Targeting Phonics Instruction to the Affective "Feeling" Domain

The brain is a "pattern-making" machine, 
constantly seeking out patterns and creating new ones.

The Measure of Intelligence

These first graders were transformed into analytical "word doctors" upon coming across the "ie" Se Secret during guided reading. Watch as they think-through (i.e. pattern-out) all of the Secrets they know about Superhero I to account for his sound behaviors, and while doing so, ultimately identify a brand NEW pattern. The diagnosis? Apparently, Superhero I has some sort of obsessive "cookie-eating and then exercising" disorder— Lol! (Kids who know the "ie" Secret will LOVE watching that clip!)

Secret Stories® Superhero I 

Secret Stories® Phonics "ie" Secret

And now for some teacher-fun! These very talented teachers from Bremerton, Washington are bringing the ie-Secret to life in their own way, which you can watch below. You can find this video and more on the free Secret Stories® Youtube Channel!

           

Underscoring existing reading curriculum and instruction with Secret Stories® makes kids privy to all of the letters' Secrets, creating a "learner-driven" instructional environment that transforms daily reading and writing into a virtual playground for critical thinking and deeper literacy learning! 

The measure of intelligence lies in the ability to see patterns where others see randomness.

Now let's watch the same first graders (from Mrs. Mac's Class) in a whole group mini-lesson, during which the kids have noticed that in the word light, the "i" is making its long sound, despite the fact that there is no Mommy E® or Babysitter Vowel® in sight! This conundrum sparks a creative (and highly imaginative!) conversation about letter-sound behavior that is purely driven by  learners' "need-to-know!"  (This is actually one of my ALL-TIME-FAVORITE clips!) 

It's difficult to imagine, given the high level of interest and student engagement seen in this video, that these first graders are actually discussing the impact of the gh phonics pattern on the sound of the letter i. Their enthusiasm for debating letter behavior is similar to that which is shown when discussing the behavior (or misbehavior!) of their classmates. This is because both concepts are anchored in the same, familiar framework of social and emotional learner-understanding. 

"It's neurobiologically impossible to think deeply about things you don't care about."
— Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (Harvard Neuroscientist)

By aligning letter-behavior to kid-behavior, Secret Stories® forges personal learner-connections to otherwise random letter sound skills, which allows inexperienced, beginning (and struggling upper) grade learners to easily hypothesize and deduce letters' "most" and "next most" likely sounds.  Targeting phonics instruction to the affective (social-emotional) "feeling" domain transforms letters and sounds from skills they have to learn into "secrets" they want to know! And the fact that they are grown-up reading and writing "secrets" makes them even more important and helps mark them for memory and prioritized learning in the brain!

Secrets make information important to learners, 
marking it for memory and prioritized learning in the brain.

And if you were wondering how these first graders so easily identified the different sounds for gh, you can learn the Secret in the video, below. (Note the little girl standing next to the lady who is re-telling the Secret, as she is watching her closely to make sure that she doesn't screw it up— Lol!)  

Moving Phonics Instruction from Apathy to Engagement  

All kids are naturally fascinated by who did what and why,  and it is this inherent "need to know" that naturally drives their desire to learn more Secrets! Even kindergartners can easily remember who the line leader is, who can't sit together, and who always gets in trouble. And the same "social-emotional" learning networks that store and retrieve this information can be used to help them keep track of behavior, making it easy to predict their "most" and "next most" likely sounds. 

Secret Stories® provides the logical explanations that our brains crave about why the letters do what they do! The Secrets make phonics make SENSE because they are based on social and emotional frameworks that are already deeply entrenched within the learner. Knowing the letters' "secrets" spark their natural curiosity. motivating them to engage more with text.  

Secret Stories® Phonics— Accessing the Affective "Feeling" Domain 

"Giving" Phonics Skills, Not "Teaching" Them for Accelerated Access to the Code

To wrap things up, I just had to share this wonderful email and picture that was sent to me by Aimee Meyer and her first grade class from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Receiving letters like this one mean EVERYTHING to me, and I cannot thank her enough for taking the time to send it!

For More "Kid-Made' Versions of the Secrets, Check Out This Post!

Dear Katie,
I just wanted to share our latest first grade classwork at St. Thomas More in Baton Rouge. My student made up their own Secret Story posters....."Drop the "y" to add "ed" and "es!"

We adore our Secret Stories! I'd feel so lost without it! My school sent me to New Orleans a couple of years ago where I got to meet you and listen to you speak.  Afterward, I went home and purchased the Secret Stories Classroom Kit as soon as could!

Thank you so much.
You don't know how many little lives you've changed.

Aimee Meyer

PS Every K-4 classroom in America needs to implement Secret Stories!)

Amy, I cannot agree more!  So let's make it happen!! There are two things that you can do to become part of the Secret Stories® tribe. First, subscribe to the free newsletter so that you are up-to-date on the latest research, strategy-shifts, video postings, free download links and general Secret Story-gossip! ;-) Second, follow, share and interact with me on social media. I'm on all of them, so pick one and let's enjoy a virtual cup of coffee (or cosmos!) together as we banter online! You can find all of my social media buttons below, as well as on the right sidebar at the top. I am most active on Instagram, and would LOVE to see pics and vids from your classroom! Just tag @TheSecretStories and be sure to use hashtags #SecretStoriesTribe  #SecretStoriesPhonics 

Until Next Time,

Katie

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter! 

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Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

Try a "taste" of the Secrets with YOUR class 

and see the difference they make!
Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here. 

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www.TheSecretStories.com

"Phonics on Steroids" — A Kindergarten Post Pt 1

"Phonics on Steroids" .....Warp-Speed Access to the Reading & Writing Code!

I sneakily took this pic at the end of snack the other day....
These 6 kids were engrossed in telling the Secrets (and trying to figure out the ones we haven't learned yet!) The little guy in the stripes has become our unofficial "Word Jail Warden!" He can spot an 'Outlaw Word' a mile away! We will start 'paroling' some of them soon!"
Kjersti Johnson- Kindergarten Teacher

A Guest Post by Kindergarten Teacher Kjersti Johnson

As teachers, I think we have all had that moment when we sit down with one of our students and they completely knock our socks off! This post is all about one of those moments.

Yesterday, I had just gotten my afternoon class of kindergartners settled into our Dailies….they were spread around the room, some reading, some writing, some listening to books on iPod shuffles, and a few shopping for new books.

I looked around to see who I would confer with (one of my favorite times of the day, by the way!) I started with Abel.

Now let me tell you about a little kindergartner named Abel.

He is one of the sweetest little guys I know. He has an amazing smile, and he is also VERY excited about learning!

He is an English Language Learner who entered kindergarten knowing 7 letters and 0 sounds. He worked SO hard the first weeks of school to learn his ABC's and by October, he knew ALL 52 upper and lowercase letters! (the Better Alphabet Song was a huge success!)

So back to yesterday……
I sat down next to him and asked him to read to me. That’s when he pulled out Arthur’s Halloween.

I looked at him and said, “Oh, this looks like a great picture read. Can you tell me a story to go with the pictures?” This is kindergarten after all, and it's a tough book! He gave me a strange look, and then…….He was READING it!

Later in the day, I had him read it again so that I could video it, and here he is reading Marc Brown's Arthur's Halloween.

ELL Kindergarten in October—"Spotting Secrets" in Arthur's Halloween 

"Was" .....?

No problem with the "head-bop" trick!

Secret Stories® Phonics Head-Bop Trick for Fickle Vowels

"Night"....with its tricky gh?
Got it!

Secret Stories Phonics Secret— Positional Sounds of gh

"Before" ....?
Didn't stump him. He saw that Babysitter Vowel® o telling e to say its name!  He also spotted o and r—who can "never make up their minds when they get together," and read it like a pro!

"Family" ....?
That Sneaky y® didn't trick him!

Secret Stories Sneaky Y® Phonics Secret

Then we got to "making"....
He knew it wasn't right when he first read it, but then he remembered the Secret! (and please excuse me telling another student, TWICE, to go color their work! ;-)

ELL Kindergarten in October—Arthur's Halloween w/Mommy E® & Babysitter Vowels®

Secret Stories Babysitter Vowels®— How to Know Whether a Vowel Will Be Long or Short?

"House"....?
Rough-housing ou and ow saying "Owwwww!" No worries.

Secret Stories® Phonics ou/ow Secret!

"Look and spooky"....?
Knowing the Secret, he switched sounds for oo like a pro!

Secret Stories® Phonics oo Secret

I was BLOWN away! And so I made poor Abel read that page to everyone I could find! I was so proud of him! (and by the way, he is determined to read the whole book now, and I have no doubt that he will!)

This morning, I shared the video with my principal, our Dean of Students, and our LAP teacher. The question of how and when I use the Secret Stories in my class came up, and I thought to myself, "When don't I use them???"

The Secrets aren't limited just to "reading" time. We use them ALL DAY LONG,  which in half-day kindergarten, is only about 2 hours and 40 minutes. (Oh, did I forget to mention that I teach half-day kinder?!) That's not very long, which is why getting the most bang for the buck in the short amount of time we have is critical. Secret Stories® makes what used to seem impossible EASY! (It's like phonics on steroids!)

Literally not a moment that goes by that the kids aren't spotting Secrets.

We look for Secrets in our poems.....

We use yellow and blue for "popcorn" words. We "butter" the new ones and put blue dots under the ones that we already know. Then we use a green highlighter to find Secrets.

And honestly, I have to say, now that the kids know the Secrets, I spend almost no time at all on memorizing sight words, except for the small handful that really break the rules and have to go to jail, as most of the words the kids can just read.

We look for Secrets in Science....

Look at the picture above to see how many variations of the word hibernate we found when reading our big book in our whole group Science lesson! One of the kids spotted the er Secret, then another spotted the or and ing Secrets, and we were off! Next came the Babysitter Vowels®, which they used to help them figure out whether the vowels would be long or short. Some students knew the Secret sounds immediately, and others had to check the posters first before sounding out each part, but they were all able to read all of the words— and write them! No one was left out of the reading and writing fun because we all had one thing in common— we all knew the Secrets!  That day, we did more reading and writing in Science than in our designated reading and writing blocks, combined! What better way is there to show beginning learners what these Secret skills are actually for!

My favorite thing is what happened the following day when I was working with a small group and heard Abel yell from his seat across the room, "Mrs. Johnson! Mrs. Johnson! Look, I found the word hibernate in my book!" And sure enough, he had.

ELL Kindergarten in October—Arthur's Halloween   

We use Secrets when we write.....

See the ow and ing in snowing and the ou in mountains!

We look for Secrets when we read the directions on our math papers.

Words like draw and count with the "letters who love each other" (au & aw) and the "letters who don't" (ou & ow) can't fool us!

Spotting Secret Stories® in Math!

As usual, ou & ow are not getting along!

The "anniversary" of au & aw Valentine's Day!

I almost never have to read the math story problems to my kids anymore because they can do it all by themselves using our Secrets!

Secret Stories® has opened up so many possibilities.....

There seems to be no limit to what my kindergartners can do. It has really changed everything.

And while I do still have kids that are just chugging along at their own pace, like sweet little Abel, they are ALL sucking up the Secrets— even those who are not always ready to apply them. And that's okay, because I know they have the "keys" in their pocket that they will need to unlock the words they want when they are ready, just like Abel did.

Transforming letters and sounds from skills they have to learn
into Secrets they want to know!

Thank you, Kjersti!

I can't thank Kjersti enough for that deep dive into all of the wonderful things that she's doing in her kindergarten classroom. I will be doing a part 2 "follow-up" to Kjersti's post, so stay tuned! (You can catch another post by Kjertsti here!)

And if you haven't tried the Secrets but would like to try sharing then with YOUR kiddos, you can download this mini-poster "appetizer" anchor pack FREE!

FREE Secret Stories® Phonics Mini-Poster "Appetizer" Anchor Pack!

Until Next Time,

Katie Garner :-)

Never Miss a Secret! Subscribe to the Newsletter!

Secret Stories® Makes Phonics Make SENSE!

Try a "taste" of the Secrets with YOUR class and see the difference they make!

Click to Download the FREE Secret Stories® Mini-Sample Poster Pack!

For a list of upcoming conferences, or for information on scheduling a school or district professional development workshop, click here.

www.TheSecretStories.com